Data collection reporting for non-terrestrial network cells

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for data collection for non-terrestrial networks (NTN). One aspect provides a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes transmitting an indication of a capability of the UE to connect to a network via both terrestrial network (TN) cells and non-terrestrial network (NTN) cells and transmitting one or more data collection reports in accordance with the indicated capability.

INTRODUCTION

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, andmore particularly, to techniques for data collection reporting innon-terrestrial networks (NTNs).

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustelecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging,broadcasts, or other similar types of services. These wirelesscommunication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable ofsupporting communication with multiple users by sharing available systemresources with those users (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, or otherresources). Multiple-access technologies can rely on any of codedivision, time division, frequency division orthogonal frequencydivision, single-carrier frequency division, or time divisionsynchronous code division, to name a few. These and other multipleaccess technologies have been adopted in various telecommunicationstandards to provide a common protocol that enables different wirelessdevices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and evenglobal level.

Although wireless communication systems have made great technologicaladvancements over many years, challenges still exist. For example,complex and dynamic environments can still attenuate or block signalsbetween wireless transmitters and wireless receivers, underminingvarious established wireless channel measuring and reporting mechanisms,which are used to manage and optimize the use of finite wireless channelresources. Consequently, there exists a need for further improvements inwireless communications systems to overcome various challenges.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a method for wireless communications by a user equipment(UE) includes transmitting an indication of a capability of the UE toconnect to a network via both terrestrial network (TN) cells andnon-terrestrial network (NTN) cells; and transmitting one or more datacollection reports in accordance with the indicated capability.

In one aspect, a method for wireless communications by a network entityincludes receiving, from a UE, an indication of a capability of the UEto connect to a network via both TN cells and NTN cells; and receivingone or more data collection reports from the UE in accordance with theindicated capability.

In one aspect, a method for wireless communications by a UE includestaking measurements for one or more TN cells and one or more NTN cells;and transmitting a report, upon detecting a failure, that includesmeasurements for at least one of the TN cells or the NTN cells.

In one aspect, a method for wireless communications by a network entityincludes communicating with a UE capable of connecting to a network viaboth TN cells and a NTN cells; and receiving, from the UE, a report thatindicates the UE detected a failure and includes measurements for atleast one of the TN cells or the NTN cells.

In one aspect, a method for wireless communications by a wireless nodeincludes generating at least one data collection report for network cellself-optimization and for Quality of Service (QoS) verification whilethe UE is capable of connecting to a network via both TN cells and NTNcells and transmitting the data collection report.

Other aspects provide: an apparatus operable, configured, or otherwiseadapted to perform the aforementioned methods as well as those describedelsewhere herein; a non-transitory, computer-readable media comprisinginstructions that, when executed by one or more processors of anapparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the aforementioned methods aswell as those described elsewhere herein; a computer program productembodied on a computer-readable storage medium comprising code forperforming the aforementioned methods as well as those describedelsewhere herein; and an apparatus comprising means for performing theaforementioned methods as well as those described elsewhere herein. Byway of example, an apparatus may comprise a processing system, a devicewith a processing system, or processing systems cooperating over one ormore networks.

The following description and the appended figures set forth certainfeatures for purposes of illustration.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended figures depict certain features of the various aspectsdescribed herein and are not to be considered limiting of the scope ofthis disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example wirelesscommunication network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating aspects of anexample a base station and user equipment.

FIGS. 3A-3D depict various example aspects of data structures for awireless communication network.

FIG. 4 depicts an example non-terrestrial network (NTN).

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict example architectures of an NTN.

FIG. 6 depicts a call flow diagram for data collection reporting forNTN, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 depicts an example automatic neighbor relation (ANR) function,according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 shows an example method for data collection reporting forterrestrial network (TN) cells and NTN cells according to aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a communications device according to aspectsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 shows an example method for data collection reporting for TNcells and NTN cells according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a communications device according to aspectsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 shows an example method for data collection reporting for TNcells and NTN cells according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a communications device according to aspectsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 shows an example method for data collection reporting for TNcells and NTN cells according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 shows an example of a communications device according to aspectsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 shows an example method for data collection reporting for TNcells and NTN cells according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a communications device according to aspectsof the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatuses, methods,processing systems, and computer-readable mediums for data collectionreporting for NTNs.

For example, aspects of the present disclosure may provide enhancedmechanisms for a UE, capable of connecting to both TN and NTN networks,to collect and report various types of data. Such reports may includereports used for self-organizing networks (SON) and minimization ofdriving test (MDT) reports, with information tailored for NTN.

In some cases, data collection reporting mechanism for TNs may beleveraged to provide additional information beneficial to optimizingperformance of various procedures for NTNs.

Introduction to Wireless Communication Networks

FIG. 1 depicts an example of a wireless communications system 100, inwhich aspects described herein may be implemented.

Generally, wireless communications system 100 includes base stations(BSs) 102, user equipments (UEs) 104, one or more core networks, such asan Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 160 and 5G Core (5GC) network 190, whichinteroperate to provide wireless communications services.

Base stations 102 may provide an access point to the EPC 160 and/or 5GC190 for a user equipment 104, and may perform one or more of thefollowing functions: transfer of user data, radio channel ciphering anddeciphering, integrity protection, header compression, mobility controlfunctions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interferencecoordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distributionfor non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection,synchronization, radio access network (RAN) sharing, multimediabroadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment trace, RANinformation management (RIM), paging, positioning, delivery of warningmessages, among other functions. Base stations may include and/or bereferred to as a gNB, NodeB, eNB, ng-eNB (e.g., an eNB that has beenenhanced to provide connection to both EPC 160 and 5GC 190), an accesspoint, a base transceiver station, a radio base station, a radiotransceiver, or a transceiver function, or a transmission receptionpoint in various contexts.

Base stations 102 wirelessly communicate with UEs 104 via communicationslinks 120. Each of base stations 102 may provide communication coveragefor a respective geographic coverage area 110, which may overlap in somecases. For example, small cell 102′ (e.g., a low-power base station) mayhave a coverage area 110′ that overlaps the coverage area 110 of one ormore macrocells (e.g., high-power base stations).

The communication links 120 between base stations 102 and UEs 104 mayinclude uplink (UL) (also referred to as reverse link) transmissionsfrom a user equipment 104 to a base station 102 and/or downlink (DL)(also referred to as forward link) transmissions from a base station 102to a user equipment 104. The communication links 120 may usemultiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, includingspatial multiplexing, beamforming, and/or transmit diversity in variousaspects.

Examples of UEs 104 include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a sessioninitiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system, a multimediadevice, a video device, a digital audio player, a camera, a gameconsole, a tablet, a smart device, a wearable device, a vehicle, anelectric meter, a gas pump, a large or small kitchen appliance, ahealthcare device, an implant, a sensor/actuator, a display, or othersimilar devices. Some of UEs 104 may be internet of things (IoT) devices(e.g., parking meter, gas pump, toaster, vehicles, heart monitor, orother IoT devices), always on (AON) devices, or edge processing devices.UEs 104 may also be referred to more generally as a station, a mobilestation, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, awireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, awireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriberstation, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, aremote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, or a client.

Communications using higher frequency bands may have higher path lossand a shorter range compared to lower frequency communications.Accordingly, certain base stations (e.g., 180 in FIG. 1 ) may utilizebeamforming 182 with a UE 104 to improve path loss and range. Forexample, base station 180 and the UE 104 may each include a plurality ofantennas, such as antenna elements, antenna panels, and/or antennaarrays to facilitate the beamforming.

In some cases, base station 180 may transmit a beamformed signal to UE104 in one or more transmit directions 182′. UE 104 may receive thebeamformed signal from the base station 180 in one or more receivedirections 182″. UE 104 may also transmit a beamformed signal to thebase station 180 in one or more transmit directions 182″. Base station180 may also receive the beamformed signal from UE 104 in one or morereceive directions 182′. Base station 180 and UE 104 may then performbeam training to determine the best receive and transmit directions foreach of base station 180 and UE 104. Notably, the transmit and receivedirections for base station 180 may or may not be the same. Similarly,the transmit and receive directions for UE 104 may or may not be thesame.

Wireless communication network 100 includes NTN data collectioncomponent 199, which may be configured to perform various operationsdescribed herein for collecting and reporting data for NTN. Wirelessnetwork 100 further includes NTN data collection component 198, whichmay be used configured to perform various operations described hereinfor processing data collected and reported for NTN.

FIG. 2 depicts aspects of an example base station (BS) 102 and a userequipment (UE) 104.

Generally, base station 102 includes various processors (e.g., 220, 230,238, and 240), antennas 234 a-t (collectively 234), transceivers 232 a-t(collectively 232), which include modulators and demodulators, and otheraspects, which enable wireless transmission of data (e.g., data source212) and wireless reception of data (e.g., data sink 239). For example,base station 102 may send and receive data between itself and userequipment 104.

Base station 102 includes controller/processor 240, which may beconfigured to implement various functions related to wirelesscommunications. In the depicted example, controller/processor 240includes collecting and reporting data for NTN 241, which may berepresentative of collecting and reporting data for NTN 199 of FIG. 1 .Notably, while depicted as an aspect of controller/processor 240,collecting and reporting data for NTN 241 may be implementedadditionally or alternatively in various other aspects of base station102 in other implementations.

Generally, user equipment 104 includes various processors (e.g., 258,264, 266, and 280), antennas 252 a-r (collectively 252), transceivers254 a-r (collectively 254), which include modulators and demodulators,and other aspects, which enable wireless transmission of data (e.g.,data source 262) and wireless reception of data (e.g., data sink 260).

User equipment 104 includes controller/processor 280, which may beconfigured to implement various functions related to wirelesscommunications. In the depicted example, controller/processor 280includes collecting and reporting data for NTN 281, which may berepresentative of collecting and reporting data for NTN 198 of FIG. 1 .Notably, while depicted as an aspect of controller/processor 280,collecting and reporting data for NTN 281 may be implementedadditionally or alternatively in various other aspects of user equipment104 in other implementations.

FIGS. 3A-3D depict aspects of data structures for a wirelesscommunication network, such as wireless communication network 100 ofFIG. 1 . In particular, FIG. 3A is a diagram 300 illustrating an exampleof a first subframe within a 5G (e.g., 5G NR) frame structure, FIG. 3Bis a diagram 330 illustrating an example of DL channels within a 5Gsubframe, FIG. 3C is a diagram 350 illustrating an example of a secondsubframe within a 5G frame structure, and FIG. 3D is a diagram 380illustrating an example of UL channels within a 5G subframe.

Further discussions regarding FIG. 1 , FIG. 2 , and FIGS. 3A-3D areprovided later in this disclosure.

Introduction to mmWave Wireless Communications

In wireless communications, an electromagnetic spectrum is oftensubdivided, into various classes, bands, channels, or other features.The subdivision is often provided based on wavelength and frequency,where frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a subcarrier, afrequency channel, a tone, or a subband.

In 5G, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequencyrange designations FR1 (410 MHz-7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz).The frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are often referred to as mid-bandfrequencies. Although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, FR1 isoften referred to (interchangeably) as a “Sub-6 GHz” band in variousdocuments and articles. A similar nomenclature issue sometimes occurswith regard to FR2, which is sometimes referred to (interchangeably) asa “millimeter wave” (“mmW” or “mmWave”) band in documents and articles,despite being different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30GHz-300 GHz), which is identified by the InternationalTelecommunications Union (ITU) as a “millimeter wave” band becausewavelengths at these frequencies are between 1 millimeter and 10millimeters. Radio waves in the band may be referred to as a millimeterwave. Near mmWave may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with awavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) bandextends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, also referred to as centimeter wave.

With the above aspects in mind, unless specifically stated otherwise, itshould be understood that the term “sub-6 GHz” or the like if usedherein may broadly represent frequencies that may be less than 6 GHz,may be within FR1, or may include mid-band frequencies. Further, unlessspecifically stated otherwise, it should be understood that the term“millimeter wave” or the like if used herein may broadly representfrequencies that may include mid-band frequencies, may be within FR2, ormay be within the EHF band.

Communications using the mmWave/near mmWave radio frequency band (e.g.,3 GHz-300 GHz) may have higher path loss and a shorter range compared tolower frequency communications. Accordingly, in FIG. 1 , mmWave basestation 180 may utilize beamforming 182 with the UE 104 to improve pathloss and range. To do so, base station 180 and the UE 104 may eachinclude a plurality of antennas, such as antenna elements, antennapanels, and/or antenna arrays to facilitate the beamforming.

In some cases, base station 180 may transmit a beamformed signal to UE104 in one or more transmit directions 182′. UE 104 may receive thebeamformed signal from the base station 180 in one or more receivedirections 182″. UE 104 may also transmit a beamformed signal to thebase station 180 in one or more transmit directions 182″. Base station180 may receive the beamformed signal from UE 104 in one or more receivedirections 182′. Base station 180 and UE 104 may then perform beamtraining to determine the best receive and transmit directions for eachof base station 180 and UE 104. Notably, the transmit and receivedirections for base station 180 may or may not be the same. Similarly,the transmit and receive directions for UE 104 may or may not be thesame.

Aspects Related to Non-Terrestrial Network

A non-terrestrial network (NTN) generally refers to a network, orsegment of networks using RF resources on board a satellite. NTNsignaling could be regenerative (with on-board NTN processing) ortransparent (e.g., so called bent pipe where the satellite sends back toEarth what it receives with only amplification and a shift from uplinkto downlink frequency).

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a wireless communications network 400including a non-terrestrial network (NTN) entity 140 (which may begenerally referred to as NTN 140), in which aspects of the presentdisclosure may be practiced. In some examples, the wirelesscommunications network 400 may implement aspects of the wirelesscommunication network 100. For example, the wireless communicationsnetwork 400 may include BS 102, UE 104, and the non-terrestrial networkentity 140, such as a satellite. BS 102 may serve a coverage area orcell 110 a in cases of a terrestrial network, and non-terrestrialnetwork entity 140 may serve the coverage area 110 b in cases of anon-terrestrial network (NTN). Some NTNs may employ airborne platforms(e.g., a drone or balloon) and/or spaceborne platforms (e.g., asatellite).

The non-terrestrial network entity 140 may communicate with the BS 102and UE 104 as part of wireless communications in an NTN. In cases of aterrestrial network, the UE 104 may communicate with the BS 102 over acommunication link 414. In the case of NTN wireless communications, thenon-terrestrial network entity 140 may be a serving cell for the UE 104via a communication link 416. In certain aspects, the non-terrestrialnetwork entity 140 may act as a relay (or a remote radio head) for theBS 102 and the UE 104. For example, the BS 102 may communicate with thenon-terrestrial network entity 140 via a communication link 418, and thenon-terrestrial network entity may relay signaling between the BS 102and UE 104 via the communication links 416, 418.

Typical footprint size of an NTN beam is 100 to 1000 km for a LEOsatellite and 200 to 3500 km for a Geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite.As illustrated in FIG. 5A, an NG-RAN deployment may include satelliteand NTN gateway (GW) serving as the cellular Uu) link between a UE and aterrestrial network (TN) gNB (and the 5G core network). NG-RAN generallyrepresents radio access network for 5G and provides both NR and LTEradio access. The link between the UE and satellite is generallyreferred to as the service link, while the link between the satelliteand GW is generally referred to as the feeder link.

As illustrated in FIG. 5B, the satellite communicates with differentgateways as it moves across its orbit. In the illustrated example, asthe satellite orbits (at a speed of 7.5 km/s), it moves from GW1 to GW2.Uplink signals from the UE experience a round trip delay (RTD) that isgenerally a sum of the delay on the service link (DUE) plus the delay onthe feeder link (DSAT). The maximum RTD is typically around 541.46 msfor GEO satellites, 25.77 ms for LEO satellites at 600 km altitude, and41.77 ms for LEO satellites at 1200 km altitude. UE speed can typicallybe ignored in comparison with speed of LEO satellite.

Aspects Related to Data Collection for Non-Terrestrial Networks

In some cases, to enhance the procedures of the NTN network, the networkcan configure the UE to collect and report various types of data. Suchreports may include reports used for self-organizing networks (SON) andminimization of driving test (MDT) reports.

SON generally refers to an automation technology designed to facilitatethe planning, configuration, and management of mobile radio accessnetworks (RANs). Some SON functionality and behavior has been definedand specified in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). Example SONfeatures for LTE include Physical Cell Identity (PCI) selection,Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) detection, Mobility RobustnessOptimization (MRO), and Mobility Load Balancing (MLB), and EnergySavings (ES).

ANR functionality is generally designed to relieve the operator from theburden of manually managing Neighbor Relations (NRs). As shown in FIG. 7, ANR functionality generally resides in the base station (eNB/gNB) andmanages a conceptual Neighbor Relation Table (NRT). Located within ANR,the Neighbor Detection Function finds new neighbors and adds them to theNRT. ANR also contains the Neighbor Removal Function which removesoutdated NRs.

MDT generally refers to a feature that enables operators to utilize UEsto collect radio measurements and associated location information, inorder to assess network performance while reducing the operator expenseassociated with traditional drive tests. In LTE, the MDT frameworktypically involves collecting data from UE (over the cellular or “Uu”link) and RAN for detecting potential issues for optimizing differentprocedures, such as random access channel (RACH), radio link failure(RLF), and connection establishment. MDT also helps network buildcoverage maps via location reporting.

In NR, the NR SON/MDT framework may take advantage or build on LTEsolutions as baseline wherever applicable. The LTE SON/MDT framework mayalso enhanced to take NR new architectures and features into account.Such features and architectures include multi-RAT dual connectivity(MR-DC), central unit and distributed unit (CU-DU) split architectures,enhanced beam management, and inactive states.

Aspects of the present disclosure propose various mechanisms that may beconsidered enhancements of SON/MDT reporting enhancements for NTN. Forexample, the mechanisms provided herein may aid in data collection forNTN optimization as part of an SON/MDT framework. The techniques mayhelp enhance Cell Global Identity (CGI) reporting and Mobility RobustOptimization (MRO) reporting, such as radio link failure (RLF) reporting(e.g., for legacy handover and condition handover-CHO). The techniquesmay also help enhance RACH reporting, connection establishment failurereporting, MDT reporting (e.g., logged and immediate MDT reporting), andMobility History Information reporting. The techniques may also helpenhance other types of reporting, such as load balancing (e.g.,reporting load metrics, such as PRB usage per beam), unified accesscontrol (UAC) reporting in NTN and TN, and automatic neighbor relation(ANR) reporting.

FIG. 6 is a call flow diagram 600 illustrating how a UE, capable ofconnecting to both TN and NTN networks, may perform data collection andreporting in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

As illustrated, the UE may indicate its capability to support both TNand NTN connections. In response, the network may configure the UE tocollect and report both TN and NTN measurements.

Such measurements may include measurements of serving/camped andneighboring TN and NTN cells. As illustrated, when reporting NTN cellmeasurements, the UE may include the corresponding satellite identifieror a flag that differentiate it from a TN cell.

The configuration may also indicate which measurements the UE is toreport, and whether the measurements are to be reported via the TN, NTN,or both. This may be beneficial, for example, because the NTN link maybe relatively expensive in terms of having limited bandwidth relative tothe TN link. Thus, the UE may be configured to send certain reports viathe TN, when possible. Reports may be forwarded between TN and NTNcells, for example, via backhaul connections between.

For immediate MDT, logged MDT, and SON reports, the network may indicate(to the UE), whether the TN cell measurements are to be reported overNTN. For example, in the case of NTN to TN handover (HO), the NTN mayrequest the immediate MDT (e.g., radio resource management RRMmeasurements of neighboring TN cells) be sent to the serving NTN cells.Similarly, in the case of TN to NTN HO, the TN may request the immediateMDT (e.g., radio resource management RRM measurements of neighboring NTNcells) be sent to the TN cells.

For immediate MDT reporting, new eventTriggered RRM measurements may bedefined for handover between NTN and TN, as well as for handover betweenTN and NTN.

In some cases, SON and logged MDT report contents of NTN and TN can bereported to the TN (e.g., to avoid the relatively expensive NTN link).In some cases, though, SON and logged MDT report contents that includeonly NTN may be reported to the NTN. For example, random access (RA)report entries (e.g., containing the RACH information over NTN) can bereported to either TN or NTN, while RA-report entries (containing theRACH information over TN) need not be reported to NTN.

In some cases, the UE may maintain a separate availability indicationfor TN and NTN SON and logged MDT reports. In such cases, the UE mayindicate availability of TN and NTN SON and logged MDT reportsseparately, for example, in the RRCReconfigurationComplete,RRCSetupComplete, RRCReastablishmentComplete, and RRCResumeCompletemessages.

In some cases, via a UEInformationRequest, the NTN may choose to requestthe logged MDT and SON reports with only NTN entries. Upon receivingsuch a request, the UE may implement filtering of NTN entries on SON/MDTreport and only report NTN entries to the network.

A UE may have different capabilities for cross system MDT and SONreporting (e.g., for reporting TN data via NTN or for reporting NTN datavia TN). For example, a UE may indicate whether the UE can report NTNSON MDT and logged MDT reports to TN, and vice versa. The UE may alsoindicate whether the UE can report NTN cell measurements to TN, and viceversa. In some cases, the UE may indicate that it is able to obtain theRA-report, logged MDT, immediate MDT, and other SON MDT reports.

In some cases, a UE may be configured for NTN SON/MDT reporting over theuser plane (U-plane). This may be beneficial, for example, as it mayavoid a need for the NTN operator to request help from a TN operator.This may essentially grant the UE the flexibility of reporting usingwhatever transport method it chooses (e.g., non-3GPP access such asWi-Fi, TN, or NTN). As noted above, the NTN air interface is typicallyconsidered to be relatively expensive and a less than ideal choice forMDT reporting. This flexibility may allow a mobile network operator(MNO) to collect data directly from the UE, skipping infra-vendorinteraction.

In MDT, a gNB typically uploads the report to a trace collection entity(TCE) either in term of trace file (sent to a TCE address) or tracestream (to a uniform resource locator or URL). If the gNB indicates theTCE address or URL to the UE, the UE can send reports via U-plane overany type of transport it chooses (e.g., TN, NTN, WiFi, wireline, orothers), at any suitable time (e.g., at night if advantageous forsending a relatively large file).

In some cases, an Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM)function/gNB may send the TCE address/URL and a reporting time window tothe UE. The OAM/TCE implementation may ensure there is some securitymechanism enabled between a UE and TCE. Such mechanisms may include, forexample, a UE IP address and UE ID matching check in TCE and/or usingHypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPs).

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements for CellGlobal Identity (CGI) reporting. For example, according to certainaspects, a UE may be configured to send a CGI report with variousadditional information. For example, the UE may include a Satelliteidentifier or flag in the CGI report. Additionally (or as analternative), the UE may include a timestamp, UE to satellite delay, UEspecific tracking area code (TAC), elevation angle, or other suchinformation as the part of CGI report. Similarly, such information couldbe also (or alternatively) included in a different type of report, suchas an MDT and/or SON report. In some cases, if multiple TACs arebroadcast for the same PCI, the UE may report a current CGI (e.g., basedon a serving TAC) or may report multiple CGIs (e.g., based on thebroadcasted TAC information).

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements forMobility robust optimization (MRO) reporting. MRO reporting may helpwith handover process optimization or minimization of radio linkfailures (RLFs) based on previous observations, for example, by helpingto avoid handing over too early, handing over too late, or handover to awrong cell.

According to certain aspects for a conventional (e.g., non-conditional)handover, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN may includevarious parameters in an RLF report. For example, the UE may include themeasurements of both TN and NTN neighboring cells and a source cell. Insome cases, upon RLF or handover failure (HoF), the UE may include bothTN and NTN cell measurements (serving and neighboring cells), if the UEis configured to perform TN to NTN HO or NTN to TN HO. RRM measurementsmay also include the antenna gain (e.g., UE type-handheld UE, smart UE,discType UE) and polarization type. In some cases, the UE may includeRRM measurements of only NTN cells, in the case of NTN-to-NTN HO.

In some cases, the UE may provide an indication of whether certain cellsinvolved in the handover (e.g., the sourcePCell, failPCell,ReestablishPCell, and/or ReconnectPCell) are part of a TN or NTN byincluding satellite identifier. In other words, inclusion of thesatellite identifier may indicate a corresponding cell is part of anNTN.

In some cases, the UE may include a new cause code for an RLF for NTN.For example, such a cause code may indicate a TAC update failure, aGlobal Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) update failure, and/or aminimum elevation issue. This information may be in addition to (or asan alternative to) cause codes currently included in RLF reports (e.g.,t310-Expiry, randomAccessProblem, rlc-MaxNumRetx,beamFailureRecoveryFailure).

In some cases, a UE may include an identifier as to whether areestablishment and/or reconnect NTN cell is broadcasted as a potentialtarget or future cell prior to HoF/RLF. In some cases, cross system (TNto NTN and/or NTN to TN) RLF reporting may be based on UE capability.

According to certain aspects, for conditional handover (CHO), a UEcapable of connecting to both TN and NTN may include various NTN relatedparameters in the RLF report. For example, the UE may includemeasurements of both TN and NTN candidate, neighboring, and sourcecells. In some cases, the UE may include both TN and NTN RRMmeasurements (e.g., serving, candidate, and neighboring cells, with anindicator to indicate the candidate CHO cell, serving and/or neighboringcells) only when a HoF failure happens during a TN to NTN HO or an NTNto TN HO.

In some cases, the RRM measurements may also include the antenna gain(UE type-handheld UE, smart UE, discType UE) and polarization type. TheUE may include RRM measurements (serving, candidate, and neighboringcells, with an indicator to indicate the candidate CHO cell) (servingand neighboring cells) of only NTN cells, in case of NTN-to-NTN HO.

In some cases, the UE may also include an indication of whether thesourcePCell, failPCell, ReestablishPCell, and ReconnectPCell are part ofTN or NTN by including satellite identifier (as noted above forconventional HO). In some cases, the UE may include an indication ofwhether the reestablishment and/or reconnect NTN cell is broadcast asthe potential target or future cell upon HoF/RLF.

The UE may include configured CHO conditions upon detection of HoF inthe RLF report. In some cases, the UE may include time-based and/orlocation-based CHO conditions or related parameters.

Time-based CHO conditions or related parameters may include a timeelapsed since the configured earliest time a CHO can be executed untilHoF (which can be computed explicitly or implicitly), an indicationwhether the time range was sufficient for performing the CHO, and/or anindication of whether the UE detected the configured candidate cells inthe configured time range (may be RRM measurement can be sufficient) ora list of NTN cells that were detected in the configured time.

Location-based conditions or related parameters may include: time spentby the UE in a configured location, an indication of whether the UEdetected the configured candidate cells in a configured area range (maybe RRM measurement can be sufficient) or a list of NTN cells that weredetected in the configured area, a time spent by the UE in theconfigured area range, or a difference in distance and/or difference inRSRP observed by the UE that did not meet to configured condition.

IF the UE is configured with time-based, location-based, and/orRSRP-based CHO trigger conditions, the UE may include an indication ofwhich CHO trigger condition was met. In some cases, the UE may indicatea time difference when these execution condition met, for example, ifmultiple trigger conditions were met (e.g., time reference maycorrespond to a first condition met).

In some cases, the UE may include a new cause code for an RLF for NTNCHO. For example, such a cause code may indicate a TAC update failure, aGNSS update failure, and/or a minimum elevation issue. In some cases,cross system (TN to NTN and/or NTN to TN) RLF reporting may be based onUE capability.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements for RACHreporting, for example, that may help optimize the NTN RACH procedure.For example, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN may includevarious NTN related fields or information in the RACH report. Suchinformation may include an indication of whether the RACH report entryis for NTN or TN (e.g., in case this is not readily inferred from thecontent of RA report or Cell ID), PRACH resources related informationfor msg1/msgA, a timestamp and location information to indicate when andwhere UE performed RACH procedure, or a RACH option used GNSS-assistedTA or common TA, and/or an indication of whether the UE uses a randomaccess preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS, or for UEs notsupporting GNSS.

In some case, a new RACH purpose (e.g., “TA report” or “TA update”) maybe indicated. In some cases, a single RA-report can contain theinformation of RACH procedure over TN and NTN.

In some cases, a UE may report various information in a RACH report(e.g., for optimization of 2-step and 4-step RACH and threshold valueoptimizations for selecting 2-step RACH over 4-step RACH). Suchinformation may include a logical channel (LCH) identity, measured RTTvalue, and measured elevation angle. Such information may also include aUE specific service link RTT and broadcasted gNB RTT compensation, timeand frequency pre-compensation used by UE for PUSCH, and/or backoffcounter length configured at the UE for initial RACH.

In some cases, a UE may report certain legacy identifiers or informationthat can be used for NTN. For example, this may include a measured RSRPvalue prior to performing RACH if both 2-step and 4-step RACH isconfigured at the UE, or an indication of whether the measured RSRPvalue is above or below the configured threshold value. Such informationmay also include an indication of whether contention is detected, and/orwhether a fallback from a 2-step RACH procedure to a 4-step RACHprocedure has happened.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements forConnection Establishment Failure (CEF) reporting, for example, which mayhelp minimize connection establishment failures.

In some cases, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN may includevarious NTN related fields or information in the CEF report. Suchinformation may include timestamp and location information to determinewhen and where CEF happened at the NTN, an identifier whether the failedcell is broadcasted as the potential target or future cell, and/or anindication whether the failed cell is part of NTN or TN in the CEFreport (e.g., if not readily inferred form the Cell ID), for example, byincluding the satellite identifier if the CEF happened over NTN.

In some cases, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN, mayinclude measurements of both TN and NTN carrier frequencies. CEF reportcontents (RRM measurements of failed cell and neighboring cells, numberof connection failures, timeSinceFailure, and others) for TN and NTN maybe obtained when reselection happens from TN to NTN or from NTN to TN,separately. This is an enhancement relative to conventional CEF reportstypically only include CEF statistics on the latest cell (e.g.,timeSinceFailure measures the time since failure irrespective of whetherUE was connected previously to TN or NTN). A UE capable of connecting toboth TN and NTN may maintain separate CEF report for TN and NTN.

In some cases, based on information elements (IEs) in the RACH reportand/or CEF report, an NTN cell/network can compute a number of failedand successful RACH processes after a gateway/fixed cell switch off(e.g., per 2-step and 4-step procedures). The NTN cell/network may usethis information to minimize an average migration time (e.g., ifsatellite is switched off). For example, NTN cell/network may attempt tooptimize backoff counter length and other configuration parameters tomaximize the number of successful RACH attempts.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements for MDTreporting (e.g., Logged MDT reports and Immediate MDT reports), forexample, which may help optimize cell selection and resection procedureor CCO in IDLE/INACTIVE states.

In some cases, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN may includevarious NTN related fields or information in the logged MDT report. Suchinformation may include, for example, an indication of whether a campedcell is part for NTN or TN (e.g., if not readily inferred form the CellID), and may include the satellite identifier if the camped cell orneighboring cell is part of NTN.

In some cases, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN may includemeasurements of both TN and NTN carrier frequencies. The UE may alsoinclude an explicit indication of a cell visibility time or cellswitch-off time of a particular satellite or frequency/PCID can beprovided by the UE explicitly—may be useful in the case of RRM relaxed.As an alternative, cell visibility time may be computed by the networkbased on the camped cell or neighboring cell measurements and aparticular satellite identifier or frequency/PCID or the UE may includean indication whether the camped and neighboring cell (satelliteidentifier or frequency/PCID) is visible with timestamps.

A UE may also include various information as part of CGI informationinclude in the logged MDT. Such information may include, for example, alist of TAC selected in order and duration of each TAC.

In some cases, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN may includevarious NTN related fields or information in the Immediate MDT report,for example, which may be useful for quality of service (QoS)verification in the NTN.

In some cases, conventional TN immediate MDT measurements may be reusedfor NTN, at the NTN cells. Such measurements may include data volume, UEUL and DL throughput, DL and UL delay, and DL and UL packet loss. Insome cases, separate UL and DL packet delay and throughput can becomputed, for example, when HARQ stalling/issues are detected and HARQstalling/issues are not detected.

In some cases, for the RRM measurement of the NTN cell, the UE mayinclude various information elements (IEs). For example, such IEs mayinclude cell and beam level measurements with satellite identifier orflag. Various information can either be inferred from RRM measurementsor can explicitly indicated. Such information may include whichconfigured cell/frequency was not detected in the configured MG or withconfigured SMTC, and how long a PCID/frequency is detected with thegiven SMTC/MG. In some cases, the UE may include the antenna gain (UEtype-handheld UE, smart UE, discType UE) and antenna polarization.

In some cases, an average, minimum, maximum, median, histogram, and/orexcess propagation delay and/or differential delay may be measured bythe UE in a measurement period.

In some cases, the UE may report a hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) issue for uplink (UL), which may be, provided event-based (e.g.,if a HARQ issue is detected more than x-times, or periodic). In somecases, the UE may report a HARQ issue as part of periodic or event basedimmediate MDT or using UE assistance information (UAI). In some case,the UE may provide an indication about HARQ processes (e.g., which HARQprocesses were successful, and which were not) and/or periods in which aHARQ issue has been detected.

In some cases, a distributed unit (DU) may report a HARQ stalling issuefor UL and DL, by providing various information. For example, suchinformation may include an indication about HARQ processes (e.g., whichHARQ process were successful, and which were stalled) and/or periods inwhich HARQ stalling has been detected.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements forreporting Mobility/UE History Information, which may be useful forrobust optimization (RO).

In some cases, a UE capable of connecting to both TN and NTN (or a gNB)may include various NTN related fields or information, such as the NTNCell ID, satellite identifier, and time spent by the UE in thatcell/satellite in the UE's mobility history information and gNB's UEhistory information. In such cases, the UE or gNB may include thebeginning time when UE connect to the NTN cell and the time until UE isconnected to the NTN cell. Alternatively, the UE or gNB may include thebeginning time when UE connect to the NTN cell and time spent on thatNTN cell and/or location information during cell transitions (startingand final location information), if the UE is connected to NTN cell.

In some cases, a UE or gNB may obtain the mobility/UE historyinformation in a single report for both NTN and TN cell transitions.

In some cases, a UE or gNB may obtain two different reports for TN andNTN transitions. In such cases, NTN mobility/UE history information mayinclude only NTN transitions and stop recording when UE moves to TN (andmay include an indication if UE has transition to the TN cell). In somecases, TN mobility/UE history information can include both NTN and TNcell transitions.

In some cases, mobility/UE history information may be shared between TNand NTN (inter-system sharing). For example, NTN may share NTNmobility/UE history information with TN, and/or TN may share TNmobility/UE history information with NTN.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements for loadbalancing in NTN, which may be useful for Mobility robustnessoptimization (MRO) purposes (e.g., in the case of handover between NTNand TN or over one satellite to another).

In some cases, various information can be included as the loadinformation for NTN for periodic or event triggered load reporting. Suchinformation may include a satellite identifier, physical resource block(PRB) usage at the satellite, an on-board hardware (HW) capacityindicator, a number of active user per satellite identifier per NTNcell, a number of inactive user per satellite identifier per NTN cell,an RRC connection per satellite identifier per NTN cell, a TransportNetwork Layer (TNL) capacity indicator per satellite identifier per NTNcell, and/or various other information.

In some cases, NTN load information and NTN visibility information(obtained from the UE) may be shared with TN periodically and/orevent-triggered (for example, upon cell change, gateway change, and loadthreshold). In some cases, based on the NTN load and visibilityinformation, the TN can implement energy saving schemes, for example, byswitching ON/OFF a TN cell.

UAC reporting for TN may include various information for each accessattempt. Such information may include, for example, for each attempt, anAccess Category and Identity(ies) used, whether this was a NAS initiatedor RAN initiated attempt, whether the access was barred or not, theaccess timer duration (T390) recorder, whether T390 was already runningwhen this attempt was made, whether a reject timer (T302) was runningduring the access, whether the timers stopped due to a cell reselection,UAC barring information (from SIB1) applied for this attempt, the randomnumber used for the access barring check, and/or a resume orestablishment cause for this attempt. In some cases, the UE may reportthe availability of UAC related measurements in RRC Setup or Resumerequest. In some cases, the UE reporting availability of UAC relatedmeasurements after moving to RRC Connected state may be included in anew RRC message or a new indication in UE assistance information can beused for this purpose. This mechanism may also be used for UACmeasurements which happen during the RRC Connected state.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements forunified access control (UAC) reporting in NTN, for example, which mayallow for report information regarding access barring check for anaccess attempt associated with a given Access Category and one or moreAccess Identities upon request from upper layers or the RRC layer.

In some cases, various information (in addition or as an alternative tothe various information for UAC reporting for TN) can be included in theUAC reporting for NTN, for example, upon an access attempt failure. Forexample, such information may include time information of the accessattempt, location information where the access attempt is made, TACinformation and PCI, CGI of the access cell, access category, satelliteidentifier, and/or cell ID. The information may also include anindication of whether an access attempt failure results in thereselection to the TN.

Aspects of the present disclosure may also provide enhancements theautomatic neighbor relation (ANR) function. As noted above, the generalpurpose of the ANR function is to relieve the operator from the burden(time and expense) of manually managing neighbor cell relation.

In some cases, as the satellite are mobile, aspects of the presentdisclosure may provide area and time based ANR functions. In such cases,the NTN cell and TN cell can maintain a time and area dependent NeighborCell Relation (NCRT) table for both TN and NTN neighboring cells. FIG. 7illustrates an example of such a table.

In some cases, the time and/or area dependent NCRT can be shared overX2/Xn/ICL interface between TN and NTN cells, and NTN and NTN cells.

In some cases, as an alternative, the time and/or area dependent NCRTmay be obtained only by the TN cell and OAM can request the NCR reportfrom the TN cell and forward it to NTN cell after some post-processing.FIG. 9 illustrates an example of an OAM obtaining an NCR report in sucha manner. In some cases, based on a time and/or area dependent NCRreport obtained from the cell, the OAM may implement a mechanism toavoid a PCI collision ahead of time.

Example Methods & Example Wireless Communication Devices

FIG. 8 shows an example of a method 800 for data collection reportingfor TN cells and NTN cells according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some aspects, a user equipment, such as UE 104 of FIGS. 1and 2 , or processing system 905 of FIG. 9 , may perform the method 800.

At operation 805, the system transmits an indication of a capability ofthe UE to connect to a network via both TN cells and NTN cells. In somecases, the operations of this step refer to, or may be performed by,capability indication circuitry as described with reference to FIG. 9 .

At operation 810, the system transmits one or more data collectionreports in accordance with the indicated capability. In some cases, theoperations of this step refer to, or may be performed by, datacollection reporting circuitry as described with reference to FIG. 9 .

In some aspects, the data collection reports comprise data collectionreports for at least one of: network self-configuration or networkself-optimization. In some aspects, for data collection reports thatinclude measurements for an NTN cell, the UE includes a satelliteidentifier corresponding to the NTN cell or an identification thatdifferentiate NTN cell from TN cell.

In some aspects, the method 800 includes receiving signaling indicatingwhether the UE is to send one or more of the data collection reports viaa TN cell, via an NTN cell, or via both TN and NTN cells. In someaspects, the signaling indicates one or more trigger events for at leastone of handover between an NTN cell and a TN cell or handover between aTN cell and an NTN cell. In some aspects, the signaling indicates thatdata collection reports including TN and NTN cell measurement are to besent via a TN cell, that data collection reports including only NTN cellmeasurements are to be sent via an NTN cell, or both.

In some aspects, the UE separately indicates availability of datacollection reports for TN cells and NTN cells. In some aspects, themethod 800 includes receiving a request for a data collection report forNTN cells only. In some aspects, the method 800 includes sending a datacollection report that includes entries for NTN cells only, in responseto the request.

In some aspects, the capability indicated by the UE indicates at leastone of: whether the UE is able to report data collection reports, forone or more NTN cells, via a TN cell; or whether the UE is able toreport data collection reports, for one or more TN cells, via an NTNcell.

In some aspects, transmitting one or more data collection reports atoperation 810 comprises transmitting the one or more data collectionreports to a TCE via a user plane. In some aspects, the method 800includes receiving at least one of an IP address of the TCE or a URL forthe TCE. In some aspects, the method 800 includes transmitting the oneor more data collection reports to the TCE address or URL, via at leastone of a TN cell, an NTN cell, or a LAN.

FIG. 9 depicts an example communications device 900 that includesvarious components operable, configured, or adapted to performoperations for the techniques disclosed herein, such as the operationsdepicted and described with respect to FIG. 8 . In some examples,communication device may be a user equipment 104 as described, forexample with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

Communications device 900 includes a processing system 905 coupled to atransceiver 965 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver 965is configured to transmit (or send) and receive signals for thecommunications device 900 via an antenna 970, such as the varioussignals as described herein. A transceiver 965 may communicatebi-directionally, via antennas 970, wired, or wireless links asdescribed above. For example, the transceiver 965 may represent awireless transceiver 965 and may communicate bi-directionally withanother wireless transceiver 965. The transceiver 965 may also includeor be connected to a modem to modulate the packets and provide themodulated packets to for transmission, and to demodulate receivedpackets. In some examples, transceiver 965 may be tuned to operate atspecified frequencies. For example, a modem can configure thetransceiver 965 to operate at a specified frequency and power levelbased on the communication protocol used by the modem.

Processing system 905 may be configured to perform processing functionsfor communications device 900, including processing signals receivedand/or to be transmitted by communications device 900. Processing system905 includes one or more processors 910 coupled to a computer-readablemedium/memory 935 via a bus 960.

In some examples, one or more processors 910 may include one or moreintelligent hardware devices, (e.g., a general-purpose processingcomponent, a digital signal processor (DSP), a central processing unit(CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a microcontroller, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device, a discrete gate ortransistor logic component, a discrete hardware component, or anycombination thereof). In some cases, the one or more processors 910 areconfigured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In othercases, a memory controller is integrated into the one or more processors910. In some cases, the one or more processors 910 are configured toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory to performvarious functions. In some aspects, one or more processors 910 includespecial purpose components for modem processing, baseband processing,digital signal processing, or transmission processing.

In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 935 is configured tostore instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that when executedby the one or more processors 910, cause the one or more processors 910to perform the operations illustrated in FIG. 8 , or other operationsfor performing the various techniques discussed herein.

In one aspect, computer-readable medium/memory 935 includes capabilityindication code 940, data collection reporting code 945, cell connectioncode 950, and TCE information code 955.

Examples of a computer-readable medium/memory 935 include random accessmemory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), solid state memory, a hard drive,a hard disk drive, etc. In some examples, computer-readablemedium/memory 935 is used to store computer-readable,computer-executable software including instructions that, when executed,cause a processor to perform various functions described herein. In somecases, the memory contains, among other things, a basic input/outputsystem (BIOS) which controls basic hardware or software operation suchas the interaction with peripheral components or devices. In some cases,a memory controller operates memory cells. For example, the memorycontroller can include a row decoder, column decoder, or both. In somecases, memory cells within a memory store information in the form of alogical state.

Various components of communications device 900 may provide means forperforming the methods described herein, including with respect to FIG.8 .

In some examples, means for transmitting or sending (or means foroutputting for transmission) may include the transceivers 254 and/orantenna(s) 252 of the user equipment 104 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/ortransceiver 965 and antenna 970 of the communication device in FIG. 9 .

In some examples, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) mayinclude the transceivers 254 and/or antenna(s) 252 of the user equipment104 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 965 and antenna 970 of thecommunication device in FIG. 9 .

In some examples, means for determining, deciding, and/or selecting mayinclude various processing system 905 components, such as: the one ormore processors 910 in FIG. 9 , or aspects of the user equipment 104depicted in FIG. 2 , including receive processor 258, transmit processor264, TX MIMO processor 266, and/or controller/processor 280.

In one aspect, one or more processors 910 includes capability indicationcircuitry 915, data collection reporting circuitry 920, cell connectioncircuitry 925, and TCE information circuitry 930.

According to some aspects, capability indication circuitry 915 transmitsan indication of a capability of the UE to connect to a network via bothTN cells and NTN cells. In some aspects, the capability indicated by theUE indicates at least one of: whether the UE is able to report datacollection reports, for one or more NTN cells, via a TN cell; or whetherthe UE is able to report data collection reports, for one or more TNcells, via an NTN cell.

According to some aspects, data collection reporting circuitry 920transmits one or more data collection reports in accordance with theindicated capability. In some aspects, the data collection reportsinclude data collection reports for at least one of: networkself-configuration or network self-optimization. In some examples, fordata collection reports that include measurements for an NTN cell, theUE includes a satellite identifier corresponding to the NTN cell or anidentification that differentiate NTN cell from TN cell. In someaspects, the UE separately indicates availability of data collectionreports for TN cells and NTN cells. In some examples, data collectionreporting circuitry 920 receives a request for a data collection reportfor NTN cells only. In some examples, data collection reportingcircuitry 920 sends a data collection report that includes entries forNTN cells only, in response to the request. In some examples, datacollection reporting circuitry 920 transmits the one or more datacollection reports to the TCE address or URL, via at least one of a TNcell, an NTN cell, or a LAN.

According to some aspects, cell connection circuitry 925 receivessignaling indicating whether the UE is to send one or more of the datacollection reports via a TN cell, via an NTN cell, or via both TN andNTN cells. In some aspects, the signaling indicates one or more triggerevents for at least one of handover between an NTN cell and a TN cell orhandover between a TN cell and an NTN cell. In some aspects, thesignaling indicates that data collection reports including TN and NTNcell measurement are to be sent via a TN cell, that data collectionreports including only NTN cell measurements are to be sent via an NTNcell, or both.

According to some aspects, data collection reporting circuitry 920transmits the one or more data collection reports by transmitting theone or more data collection reports to a TCE via a user plane. In someexamples, TCE information circuitry 930 receives at least one of an IPaddress of the TCE or a URL for the TCE.

Notably, FIG. 9 is just use example, and many other examples andconfigurations of communication device are possible.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a method 1000 for data collection reportingfor TN cells and NTN cells according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some aspects, a base station, such as base station 102 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 , or processing system 1105 of FIG. 11 , may perform themethod 1000.

At operation 1005, the system receives, from a UE, an indication of acapability of the UE to connect to a network via both TN cells and NTNcells. In some cases, the operations of this step refer to, or may beperformed by, UE capability management circuitry as described withreference to FIG. 11 .

At operation 1010, the system receives one or more data collectionreports from the UE in accordance with the indicated capability. In somecases, the operations of this step refer to, or may be performed by, UEdata collection report circuitry as described with reference to FIG. 11.

In some aspects, the data collection reports comprise data collectionreports for at least one of: network self-configuration or networkself-optimization. In some aspects, the data collection reports thatinclude measurements for an NTN cell also include a satellite identifiercorresponding to the NTN cell or an identification that differentiateNTN cell from TN cell.

In some aspects, the method 1000 includes transmitting signaling, to theUE, indicating whether the UE is to send one or more of the datacollection reports via a TN cell, via an NTN cell, or via both NT andNTN cells. In some aspects, the signaling indicates one or more triggerevents for at least one of handover between an NTN cell and a TN cell orhandover between a TN cell and an NTN cell. In some aspects, thesignaling indicates that data collection reports including TN and NTNcell measurement are to be sent via a TN cell, that data collectionreports including only NTN cell measurements are to be sent via an NTNcell, or both.

In some aspects, the UE separately indicates availability of datacollection reports for TN cells and NTN cells. In some aspects, themethod 1000 includes transmitting the UE a request for a data collectionreport for NTN cells only. In some aspects, the method 1000 includesreceiving a data collection report that includes entries for NTN cellsonly, in response to the request. In some aspects, the capabilityindicated by the UE indicates at least one of: whether UE the UE is ableto report data collection reports, for one or more NTN cells, via a TNcell; or whether UE the UE is able to report data collection reports,for one or more TN cells, via an NTN cell.

In some aspects, receiving one or more data collection reports comprisesreceiving the one or more data collection reports sent to a TCE via auser plane. In some aspects, the method 1000 includes transmitting, tothe UE, at least one of an IP address of the TCE or a URL for the TCE.In some aspects, the method 1000 includes receiving the one or more datacollection reports to the TCE address or URL, via at least one of a TNcell, an NTN cell, or a LAN.

FIG. 11 depicts an example communications device 1100 that includesvarious components operable, configured, or adapted to performoperations for the techniques disclosed herein, such as the operationsdepicted and described with respect to FIG. 10 . In some examples,communication device may be a base station 102 as described, for examplewith respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

Communications device 1100 includes a processing system 1105 coupled toa transceiver 1165 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver1165 is configured to transmit (or send) and receive signals for thecommunications device 1100 via an antenna 1170, such as the varioussignals as described herein. In some aspects, transceiver 1165 is anexample of, or includes aspects of, the corresponding element describedwith reference to FIG. 9 .

Processing system 1105 may be configured to perform processing functionsfor communications device 1100, including processing signals receivedand/or to be transmitted by communications device 1100. Processingsystem 1105 includes one or more processors 1110 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 1135 via a bus 1160. In certain aspects,computer-readable medium/memory 1135 is configured to store instructions(e.g., computer-executable code) that when executed by the one or moreprocessors 1110, cause the one or more processors 1110 to perform theoperations illustrated in FIG. 10 , or other operations for performingthe various techniques discussed herein.

In one aspect, computer-readable medium/memory 1135 includes UEcapability management code 1140, UE data collection report code 1145, UEcell configuration code 1150, and TCE indication code 1155. In someaspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1135 is an example of, orincludes aspects of, the corresponding element described with referenceto FIG. 9 .

Various components of communications device 1100 may provide means forperforming the methods described herein, including with respect to FIG.10 .

In some examples, means for transmitting or sending (or means foroutputting for transmission) may include the transceivers 232 and/orantenna(s) 234 of the base station 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/ortransceiver 1165 and antenna 1170 of the communication device in FIG. 11.

In some examples, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) mayinclude the transceivers 232 and/or antenna(s) 234 of the base station102 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 1165 and antenna 1170 ofthe communication device in FIG. 11 .

In some examples, means for determining, deciding, and/or selecting mayinclude various processing system 1105 components, such as: the one ormore processors 1110 in FIG. 11 , or aspects of the base station 102depicted in FIG. 2 , including receive processor 238, transmit processor220, TX MIMO processor 230, and/or controller/processor 240.

In one aspect, one or more processors 1110 includes UE capabilitymanagement circuitry 1115, UE data collection report circuitry 1120, UEcell configuration circuitry 1125, and TCE indication circuitry 1130. Insome aspects, one or more processors 1110 are examples of, or includeaspects of, the corresponding element described with reference to FIG. 9.

According to some aspects, UE capability management circuitry 1115receives, from a UE, an indication of a capability of the UE to connectto a network via both TN cells and NTN cells. In some aspects, thecapability indicated by the UE indicates at least one of: whether UE theUE is able to report data collection reports, for one or more NTN cells,via a TN cell; or whether UE the UE is able to report data collectionreports, for one or more TN cells, via an NTN cell.

According to some aspects, UE data collection report circuitry 1120receives one or more data collection reports from the UE in accordancewith the indicated capability. In some aspects, the data collectionreports include data collection reports for at least one of: networkself-configuration or network self-optimization. In some aspects, thedata collection reports that include measurements for an NTN cell alsoinclude a satellite identifier corresponding to the NTN cell or anidentification that differentiate NTN cell from TN cell. In someaspects, the UE separately indicates availability of data collectionreports for TN cells and NTN cells. In some examples, UE data collectionreport circuitry 1120 transmits the UE a request for a data collectionreport for NTN cells only. In some examples, UE data collection reportcircuitry 1120 receives a data collection report that includes entriesfor NTN cells only, in response to the request. In some examples, UEdata collection report circuitry 1120 receives the one or more datacollection reports to the TCE address or URL, via at least one of a TNcell, an NTN cell, or a LAN.

According to some aspects, UE cell configuration circuitry 1125transmits signaling, to the UE, indicating whether the UE is to send oneor more of the data collection reports via a TN cell, via an NTN cell,or via both NT and NTN cells. In some aspects, the signaling indicatesone or more trigger events for at least one of handover between an NTNcell and a TN cell or handover between a TN cell and an NTN cell. Insome aspects, the signaling indicates that data collection reportsincluding TN and NTN cell measurement are to be sent via a TN cell, thatdata collection reports including only NTN cell measurements are to besent via an NTN cell, or both.

According to some aspects, UE data collection report circuitry 1120receives one or more data collection reports by receiving the one ormore data collection reports sent to a TCE via a user plane. In someexamples, TCE indication circuitry 1130 transmits, to the UE, at leastone of an IP address of the TCE or a URL for the TCE.

Notably, FIG. 11 is just use example, and many other examples andconfigurations of communication device are possible.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a method 1200 for data collection reportingfor TN cells and NTN cells according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some aspects, a user equipment, such as UE 104 of FIGS. 1and 2 , or processing system 1305 of FIG. 13 , may perform the method1200.

At operation 1205, the system takes measurements for one or more TNcells and one or more NTN cells. In some cases, the operations of thisstep refer to, or may be performed by, cell measurement circuitry asdescribed with reference to FIG. 13 .

At operation 1210, the system transmits a report, upon detecting afailure, that includes measurements for at least one of the TN cells orthe NTN cells. In some cases, the operations of this step refer to, ormay be performed by, measurement reporting circuitry as described withreference to FIG. 13 .

In some aspects, the failure comprises a RLF, a CEF, or a HoF associatedwith a handover from an NTN cell to a TN cell, from a TN cell to an NTNcell, or from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In some aspects, the reportincludes measurements for NTN cells only if the HoF failure isassociated with a handover from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In someaspects, the report includes an indication of whether a source primarycell, a failed primary cell, a reestablish primary cell, or a reconnectprimary cell is part of a TN or NTN by including a satellite identifieror a flag.

In some aspects, the failure comprises an RLF and the report includes anNTN-specific RLF cause. In some aspects, the NTN-specific RLF causecomprises at least one of TAC update failure, a GNSS update failure, ora minimum elevation issue.

In some aspects, the report includes one or more configured CHO triggerconditions. In some aspects, the report includes at least one oftime-based CHO conditions or related parameters; or location based CHOconditions or related parameters. In some aspects, the time-based CHOconditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: a timeelapsed since an earliest time a CHO is allowed to be executed until ahandover failure; an indication of whether a time range was sufficientfor performing a CHO; an indication of whether the UE detected one ormore candidate cells in the time range; or a list of one or more NTNcells detected in the time range.

In some aspects, the location-based CHO conditions or related parameterscomprise at least one of: time spent by the UE in the location range; anindication of whether the UE detected one or more candidate cells in anarea; a list of one or more NTN cells detected in the area; time spentby the UE in the area; or at least one of a difference in distance ordifference in RSRP observed by the UE that did not meet a configuredcondition. In some aspects, the report indicates one or more CHO triggerconditions and the time difference when different CHO trigger conditionthat were met.

In some aspects, the failure comprises a CEF and the report includes atleast one of: timestamp and location information, an identifierindicating whether a failed cell is broadcast as a potential target orfuture cell, an indication whether the failed cell is part of an NTN orTN, or a satellite identifier. In some aspects, the UE maintainsseparate CEF reports for TN cells and NTN cells.

In some aspects, the report comprises at least one RACH report entry fora RACH procedure for an NTN cell. In some aspects, the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of PRACH resources related to atransmission of a first RACH message by the UE for the RACH procedure, atimestamp and location information to indicate when and where the UEperformed a RACH procedure, whether the UE used a GNSS assisted TAcommon TA value for the RACH procedure, or an indication of whether theUE used a random access preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS or forUEs not supporting GNSS.

In some aspects, the RACH report entry includes at least one of: anindication of a LCH identity; a measured RTT value; a UE-specificservice link RTT and broadcast RTT compensation value; time andfrequency pre-compensation used by the UE for a PUSCH transmission; ameasured elevation angle; or a backoff counter length configured at theUE for an initial RACH. In some aspects, the RACH report entry includeNTN specific RA-purpose: TA report or TA update, if the RACH procedurewas initiated for TA update.

In some aspects, the report comprises at least one CGI report includinga satellite identifier corresponding to a CGI. In some aspects, thereport also includes, for the NTN cell, at least one of: a timestamp, aUE to satellite delay, a TAC, or elevation angle. In some aspects, theTAC comprises one of multiple TACs broadcast for a same PCI; and the UEreports at least one of a current CGI based on a serving TAC or multipleCGIs based on the broadcast TACs.

In some aspects, the report comprises mobility information for the UE inthe NTN cell; and the mobility information comprises at least one of atime when the UE connects to the NTN cell, a duration of time spent onthe NTN cell, and initial and final location information during celltransitions.

In some aspects, the report includes UAC reporting information. In someaspects, the UAC reporting information comprises at least one of: timeinformation of an access attempt; location information where the accessattempt was made; TAC information and at least one of a PCI or a CGI ofan access cell; or an access category, satellite identifier, or cell ID.In some aspects, the UAC reporting information comprises an indicationof whether an access attempt failure results in the reselection to theTN.

FIG. 13 . depicts an example communications device 1300 that includesvarious components operable, configured, or adapted to performoperations for the techniques disclosed herein, such as the operationsdepicted and described with respect to FIG. 12 . In some examples,communication device may be a user equipment 104 as described, forexample with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

Communications device 1300 includes a processing system 1305 coupled toa transceiver 1345 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver1345 is configured to transmit (or send) and receive signals for thecommunications device 1300 via an antenna 1350, such as the varioussignals as described herein.

Processing system 1305 may be configured to perform processing functionsfor communications device 1300, including processing signals receivedand/or to be transmitted by communications device 1300. Processingsystem 1305 includes one or more processors 1310 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 1325 via a bus 1340.

In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1325 is configuredto store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that whenexecuted by the one or more processors 1310, cause the one or moreprocessors 1310 to perform the operations illustrated in FIG. 12 , orother operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein.

In one aspect, computer-readable medium/memory 1325 includes cellmeasurement code 1330 and measurement reporting code 1335.

Various components of communications device 1300 may provide means forperforming the methods described herein, including with respect to FIG.12 .

In some examples, means for transmitting or sending (or means foroutputting for transmission) may include the transceivers 254 and/orantenna(s) 252 of the user equipment 104 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/ortransceiver 1345 and antenna 1350 of the communication device in FIG. 13.

In some examples, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) mayinclude the transceivers 254 and/or antenna(s) 252 of the user equipment104 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 1345 and antenna 1350 ofthe communication device in FIG. 13 .

In some examples, means for determining, deciding, and/or selecting mayinclude various processing system 1305 components, such as: the one ormore processors 1310 in FIG. 13 , or aspects of the user equipment 104depicted in FIG. 2 , including receive processor 258, transmit processor264, TX MIMO processor 266, and/or controller/processor 280.

In one aspect, one or more processors 1310 includes cell measurementcircuitry 1315 and measurement reporting circuitry 1320. According tosome aspects, cell measurement circuitry 1315 takes measurements for oneor more TN cells and one or more NTN cells. According to some aspects,measurement reporting circuitry 1320 transmits a report, upon detectinga failure, that includes measurements for at least one of the TN cellsor the NTN cells.

In some aspects, the failure includes a RLF, a CEF, or a HoF associatedwith a handover from an NTN cell to a TN cell, from a TN cell to an NTNcell, or from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In some aspects, the reportincludes measurements for NTN cells only if the HoF failure isassociated with a handover from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In someaspects, the report includes an indication of whether a source primarycell, a failed primary cell, a reestablish primary cell, or a reconnectprimary cell is part of a TN or NTN by including a satellite identifieror a flag. In some aspects, the failure includes an RLF and the reportincludes an NTN-specific RLF cause. In some aspects, the NTN-specificRLF cause includes at least one of TAC update failure, a GNSS updatefailure, or a minimum elevation issue.

In some aspects, the report includes one or more configured CHO triggerconditions. In some aspects, the report includes at least one oftime-based CHO conditions or related parameters; or location based CHOconditions or related parameters. In some aspects, the time-based CHOconditions or related parameters include at least one of: a time elapsedsince an earliest time a CHO is allowed to be executed until a handoverfailure; an indication of whether a time range was sufficient forperforming a CHO; an indication of whether the UE detected one or morecandidate cells in the time range; or a list of one or more NTN cellsdetected in the time range. In some aspects, the location-based CHOconditions or related parameters include at least one of: time spent bythe UE in the location range; an indication of whether the UE detectedone or more candidate cells in an area; a list of one or more NTN cellsdetected in the area; time spent by the UE in the area; or at least oneof a difference in distance or difference in RSRP observed by the UEthat did not meet a configured condition.

In some aspects, the report indicates one or more CHO trigger conditionsand the time difference when different CHO trigger condition that weremet. In some aspects, the failure includes a CEF and the report includesat least one of: timestamp and location information, an identifierindicating whether a failed cell is broadcast as a potential target orfuture cell, an indication whether the failed cell is part of an NTN orTN, or a satellite identifier. In some aspects, the UE maintainsseparate CEF reports for TN cells and NTN cells. In some aspects, thereport includes at least one RACH report entry for a RACH procedure foran NTN cell. In some aspects, the RACH report entry includes at leastone of: an indication of PRACH resources related to a transmission of afirst RACH message by the UE for the RACH procedure, a timestamp andlocation information to indicate when and where the UE performed a RACHprocedure, whether the UE used a GNSS assisted TA common TA value forthe RACH procedure, or an indication of whether the UE used a randomaccess preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS or for UEs notsupporting GNSS. In some aspects, the RACH report entry includes atleast one of: an indication of a LCH identity; a measured RTT value; aUE-specific service link RTT and broadcast RTT compensation value; timeand frequency pre-compensation used by the UE for a PUSCH transmission;a measured elevation angle; or a backoff counter length configured atthe UE for an initial RACH. In some aspects, the RACH report entryinclude NTN specific RA-purpose: TA report or TA update, if the RACHprocedure was initiated for TA update.

In some aspects, the report includes at least one CGI report including asatellite identifier corresponding to a CGI. In some aspects, the reportalso includes, for the NTN cell, at least one of: a timestamp, a UE tosatellite delay, a TAC, or elevation angle. In some aspects, the TACincludes one of multiple TACs broadcast for a same PCI; and the UEreports at least one of a current CGI based on a serving TAC or multipleCGIs based on the broadcast TACs. In some aspects, the report includesmobility information for the UE in the NTN cell; and the mobilityinformation includes at least one of a time when the UE connects to theNTN cell, a duration of time spent on the NTN cell, and initial andfinal location information during cell transitions.

In some aspects, the report includes UAC reporting information. In someaspects, the UAC reporting information includes at least one of: timeinformation of an access attempt; location information where the accessattempt was made; TAC information and at least one of a PCI or a CGI ofan access cell; or an access category, satellite identifier, or cell ID.In some aspects, the UAC reporting information includes an indication ofwhether an access attempt failure results in the reselection to the TN.

Notably, FIG. 13 is just use example, and many other examples andconfigurations of communication device are possible.

FIG. 14 shows an example of a method 1400 for data collection reportingfor TN cells and NTN cells according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some aspects, a base station, such as base station 102 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 , or processing system 1505 of FIG. 15 , may perform themethod 1400.

At operation 1405, the system communicates with a UE capable ofconnecting to a network via both TN cells and a NTN cells. In somecases, the operations of this step refer to, or may be performed by, UEcommunication circuitry as described with reference to FIG. 15 .

At operation 1410, the system receives, from the UE, a report thatindicates the UE detected a failure and includes measurements for atleast one of the TN cells or the NTN cells. In some cases, theoperations of this step refer to, or may be performed by, UE measurementreport circuitry as described with reference to FIG. 15 .

In some aspects, the failure comprises a RLF; a CEF; or a HoF associatedwith a handover from an NTN cell to a TN cell, from a TN cell to an NTNcell, or from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In some aspects, the reportincludes measurements for NTN cells only if the HoF failure isassociated with a handover from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In someaspects, the report includes an indication of whether a source primarycell, a failed primary cell, a reestablish primary cell, or a reconnectprimary cell is part of a TN or NTN by including a satellite identifieror a flag.

In some aspects, the failure comprises an RLF and the report includes anNTN-specific RLF cause. In some aspects, the NTN-specific RLF causecomprises at least one of a TAC update failure, a GNSS update failure,or a minimum elevation issue.

In some aspects, the report includes one or more configured CHO triggerconditions. In some aspects, the report includes at least one of:time-based CHO conditions or related parameters; or location based CHOconditions or related parameters. In some aspects, the time-based CHOconditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: a timeelapsed since an earliest time a CHO is allowed to be executed until ahandover failure; an indication of whether a time range was sufficientfor performing a CHO; an indication of whether the UE detected one ormore candidate cells in the time range; or a list of one or more NTNcells detected in the time range. In some aspects, the location-basedCHO conditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: timespent by the UE in the location range; an indication of whether the UEdetected one or more candidate cells in an area; a list of one or moreNTN cells detected in the area; time spent by the UE in the area; or atleast one of a difference in distance or difference in RSRP observed bythe UE that did not meet a configured condition. In some aspects, thereport indicates one or more CHO trigger conditions and the timedifference when different CHO trigger condition that were met.

In some aspects, the failure comprises a CEF and the report includes atleast one of: timestamp and location information, an identifierindicating whether a failed cell is broadcast as a potential target orfuture cell, an indication whether the failed cell is part of an NTN orTN, or a satellite identifier. In some aspects, the network entityreceives separate CEF reports for TN cells and NTN cells.

In some aspects, the report comprises at least one RACH report entry fora RACH procedure for an NTN cell. In some aspects, the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of PRACH resources related to atransmission of a first RACH message by the UE for the RACH procedure, atimestamp and location information to indicate when and where the UEperformed a RACH procedure, whether the UE used a GNSS assisted TAcommon TA value for the RACH procedure, or an indication of whether theUE used a random access preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS or forUEs not supporting GNSS.

In some aspects, the RACH report entry includes at least one of: anindication of a LCH identity; a measured RTT value; a UE-specificservice link RTT and broadcast RTT compensation value; time andfrequency pre-compensation used by the UE for a PUSCH transmission; ameasured elevation angle; or a backoff counter length configured at theUE for an initial RACH. In some aspects, the RACH report entry includeNTN specific RA-purpose: TA report or TA update, if the RACH procedurewas initiated for TA update.

In some aspects, the report comprises at least one CGI report includinga satellite identifier corresponding to a CGI. In some aspects, thereport also includes, for the NTN cell, at least one of: a timestamp, aUE to satellite delay, a TAC, or elevation angle. In some aspects, theTAC comprises one of multiple TACs broadcast for a same PCI; and the UEreports at least one of a current CGI based on a serving TAC or multipleCGIs based on the broadcast TACs.

In some aspects, the report comprises mobility information for the UE inthe NTN cell; and the mobility information comprises at least one of atime when the UE connects to the NTN cell, a duration of time spent onthe NTN cell, and initial and final location information during celltransitions.

In some aspects, the report includes UAC reporting information. In someaspects, the UAC reporting information comprises at least one of: timeinformation of an access attempt; location information where the accessattempt was made; TAC information and at least one of a PCI or a CGI ofan access cell; or an access category, satellite identifier, or cell ID.In some aspects, the UAC reporting information comprises an indicationof whether an access attempt failure results in the reselection to theTN.

FIG. 15 depicts an example communications device 1500 that includesvarious components operable, configured, or adapted to performoperations for the techniques disclosed herein, such as the operationsdepicted and described with respect to FIG. 14 . In some examples,communication device may be a base station 102 as described, for examplewith respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

Communications device 1500 includes a processing system 1505 coupled toa transceiver 1545 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver1545 is configured to transmit (or send) and receive signals for thecommunications device 1500 via an antenna 1550, such as the varioussignals as described herein. Processing system 1505 may be configured toperform processing functions for communications device 1500, includingprocessing signals received and/or to be transmitted by communicationsdevice 1500.

Processing system 1505 includes one or more processors 1510 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 1525 via a bus 1540. Processing system1505 may be configured to perform processing functions forcommunications device 1500, including processing signals received and/orto be transmitted by communications device 1500. Processing system 1505includes one or more processors 1510 coupled to a computer-readablemedium/memory 1525 via a bus 1540.

In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1525 is configuredto store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that whenexecuted by the one or more processors 1510, cause the one or moreprocessors 1510 to perform the operations illustrated in FIG. 14 , orother operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein.

In one aspect, computer-readable medium/memory 1525 includes UEcommunication code 1530 and UE measurement report code 1535.

Various components of communications device 1500 may provide means forperforming the methods described herein, including with respect to FIG.14 .

In some examples, means for transmitting or sending (or means foroutputting for transmission) may include the transceivers 232 and/orantenna(s) 234 of the base station 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/ortransceiver 1545 and antenna 1550 of the communication device in FIG. 15.

In some examples, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) mayinclude the transceivers 232 and/or antenna(s) 234 of the base station102 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 1545 and antenna 1550 ofthe communication device in FIG. 15

In some examples, means for determining, deciding, and/or selecting mayinclude various processing system 1505 components, such as: the one ormore processors 1510 in FIG. 15 , or aspects of the base station 102depicted in FIG. 2 , including receive processor 238, transmit processor220, TX MIMO processor 230, and/or controller/processor 240.

In one aspect, one or more processors 1510 includes UE communicationcircuitry 1515 and UE measurement report circuitry 1520. According tosome aspects, UE communication circuitry 1515 communicates with a UEcapable of connecting to a network via both TN cells and a NTN cells.According to some aspects, UE measurement report circuitry 1520receives, from the UE, a report that indicates the UE detected a failureand includes measurements for at least one of the TN cells or the NTNcells.

In some aspects, the failure includes a RLF; a CEF; or a HoF associatedwith a handover from an NTN cell to a TN cell, from a TN cell to an NTNcell, or from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In some aspects, the reportincludes measurements for NTN cells only if the HoF failure isassociated with a handover from an NTN cell to an NTN cell. In someaspects, the report includes an indication of whether a source primarycell, a failed primary cell, a reestablish primary cell, or a reconnectprimary cell is part of a TN or NTN by including a satellite identifieror a flag. In some aspects, the failure includes an RLF and the reportincludes an NTN-specific RLF cause. In some aspects, the NTN-specificRLF cause includes at least one of a TAC update failure, a GNSS updatefailure, or a minimum elevation issue.

In some aspects, the report includes one or more configured CHO triggerconditions. In some aspects, the report includes at least one of:time-based CHO conditions or related parameters; or location based CHOconditions or related parameters. In some aspects, the time-based CHOconditions or related parameters include at least one of: a time elapsedsince an earliest time a CHO is allowed to be executed until a handoverfailure; an indication of whether a time range was sufficient forperforming a CHO; an indication of whether the UE detected one or morecandidate cells in the time range; or a list of one or more NTN cellsdetected in the time range. In some aspects, the location-based CHOconditions or related parameters include at least one of: time spent bythe UE in the location range; an indication of whether the UE detectedone or more candidate cells in an area; a list of one or more NTN cellsdetected in the area; time spent by the UE in the area; or at least oneof a difference in distance or difference in RSRP observed by the UEthat did not meet a configured condition. In some aspects, the reportindicates one or more CHO trigger conditions and the time differencewhen different CHO trigger condition that were met.

In some aspects, the failure includes a CEF and the report includes atleast one of: timestamp and location information, an identifierindicating whether a failed cell is broadcast as a potential target orfuture cell, an indication whether the failed cell is part of an NTN orTN, or a satellite identifier. In some aspects, the network entityreceives separate CEF reports for TN cells and NTN cells. In someaspects, the report includes at least one RACH report entry for a RACHprocedure for an NTN cell. In some aspects, the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of PRACH resources related to atransmission of a first RACH message by the UE for the RACH procedure, atimestamp and location information to indicate when and where the UEperformed a RACH procedure, whether the UE used a GNSS assisted TAcommon TA value for the RACH procedure, or an indication of whether theUE used a random access preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS or forUEs not supporting GNSS. In some aspects, the RACH report entry includesat least one of: an indication of a LCH identity; a measured RTT value;a UE-specific service link RTT and broadcast RTT compensation value;time and frequency pre-compensation used by the UE for a PUSCHtransmission; a measured elevation angle; or a backoff counter lengthconfigured at the UE for an initial RACH. In some aspects, the RACHreport entry include NTN specific RA-purpose: TA report or TA update, ifthe RACH procedure was initiated for TA update. In some aspects, thereport includes at least one CGI report including a satellite identifiercorresponding to a CGI.

In some aspects, the report also includes, for the NTN cell, at leastone of: a timestamp, a UE to satellite delay, a TAC, or elevation angle.In some aspects, the TAC includes one of multiple TACs broadcast for asame PCI; and the UE reports at least one of a current CGI based on aserving TAC or multiple CGIs based on the broadcast TACs. In someaspects, the report includes mobility information for the UE in the NTNcell; and the mobility information includes at least one of a time whenthe UE connects to the NTN cell, a duration of time spent on the NTNcell, and initial and final location information during celltransitions. In some aspects, the report includes UAC reportinginformation. In some aspects, the UAC reporting information includes atleast one of: time information of an access attempt; locationinformation where the access attempt was made; TAC information and atleast one of a PCI or a CGI of an access cell; or an access category,satellite identifier, or cell ID. In some aspects, the UAC reportinginformation includes an indication of whether an access attempt failureresults in the reselection to the TN.

Notably, FIG. 15 is just use example, and many other examples andconfigurations of communication device are possible.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a method 1600 for data collection reportingfor TN cells and NTN cells according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some aspects, a user equipment, such as UE 104 of FIGS. 1and 2 , a base station, such as base station 102 of FIGS. 1 and 2 , orprocessing system 1705 of FIG. 17 , may perform the method 1600.

At operation 1605, the system generates at least one data collectionreport for network cell self-optimization and for QoS verification whilethe UE is capable of connecting to a network via both TN cells and NTNcells. In some cases, the operations of this step refer to, or may beperformed by, network cell reporting circuitry as described withreference to FIG. 17 .

At operation 1610, the system transmits the data collection report. Insome cases, the operations of this step refer to, or may be performedby, information reporting circuitry as described with reference to FIG.17 .

In some aspects, the data collection report comprises a MDT report. Insome aspects, the data collection report comprises a MDT reportContaining measurements in IDLE and INACTIVE state that includes atleast one of: radio measurements of TN and NTN cells depending upon theUE capability; an indication of whether a camped cell is part of an NTNor TN; a satellite identifier if a capped cell or neighboring cell ispart of NTN; or a cell visibility time or cell switch-off time of aparticular satellite or frequency or PCID. In some aspects, the MDTreport additionally include at least one of: an indication of whethercamped cells and neighboring cell are visible with timestamps; or a listof TACs.

In some aspects, the data collection report comprises an MDT report. Insome aspects, the MDT report indicates, for one or more NTN cells, atleast one of: data volume, UE uplink throughput, UE downlink throughput,downlink delay, uplink delay, downlink packet loss, or uplink packetloss. In some aspects, the data volume, UE uplink throughput, UEdownlink throughput, downlink delay, uplink delay, downlink packet loss,or uplink packet loss are obtained separately based on the informationwhether the HARQ issue was detected in uplink or downlink, or not.

In some aspects, the MDT report indicates, for RRM measurement of one ormore NTN cells, at least one of: cell and beam level measurements with asatellite identifier or flag to indicate cell and beam measurementscorrespond to NTN cell, which configured cell or frequency was notdetected in a configured master group or with configured MTC window, orhow long a physical cell ID or frequency was detected within theconfigured MTC window.

In some aspects, the MDT report indicates at least one of: an average,minimum, maximum, median, histogram, or excess propagation delay ordifferential delay measured by the UE in a measurement period.

In some aspects, the MDT report indicates at least one HARQ issue for atleast one of uplink or downlink, if the HARQ issue is detected more thana threshold number of times. In some aspects, the MDT report indicateswhich HARQ processes were successful.

FIG. 17 depicts an example communications device 1700 that includesvarious components operable, configured, or adapted to performoperations for the techniques disclosed herein, such as the operationsdepicted and described with respect to FIG. 16 . In some examples,communication device may be a base station 102 and/or a user equipment104 as described, for example with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2 .

Communications device 1700 includes a processing system 1705 coupled toa transceiver 1745 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver1745 is configured to transmit (or send) and receive signals for thecommunications device 1700 via an antenna 1750, such as the varioussignals as described herein.

Processing system 1705 may be configured to perform processing functionsfor communications device 1700, including processing signals receivedand/or to be transmitted by communications device 1700. Processingsystem 1705 includes one or more processors 1710 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 1725 via a bus 1740.

In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1725 is configuredto store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that whenexecuted by the one or more processors 1710, cause the one or moreprocessors 1710 to perform the operations illustrated in FIG. 16 , orother operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein.

In one aspect, computer-readable medium/memory 1725 includes networkcell reporting code 1730 and information reporting code 1735.

Various components of communications device 1700 may provide means forperforming the methods described herein, including with respect to FIG.16 .

In some examples, means for transmitting or sending (or means foroutputting for transmission) may include the transceivers 254 and/orantenna(s) 252 of the user equipment 104 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/ortransceiver 1345 and antenna 1350 of the communication device in FIG. 17.

In some examples, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) mayinclude the transceivers 254 and/or antenna(s) 252 of the user equipment104 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 1345 and antenna 1350 ofthe communication device in FIG. 17 .

In some examples, means for determining, deciding, and/or selecting mayinclude various processing system 1305 components, such as: the one ormore processors 1310 in FIG. 17 , or aspects of the user equipment 104depicted in FIG. 2 , including receive processor 258, transmit processor264, TX MIMO processor 266, and/or controller/processor 280.

In one aspect, one or more processors 1710 includes network cellreporting circuitry 1715 and information reporting circuitry 1720.According to some aspects, network cell reporting circuitry 1715generates at least one data collection report for network cellself-optimization and for QoS verification while the UE is capable ofconnecting to a network via both TN cells and NTN cells. According tosome aspects, information reporting circuitry 1720 transmits the datacollection report.

In some aspects, the data collection report includes a MDT report. Insome aspects, the data collection report includes a MDT reportContaining measurements in IDLE and INACTIVE state that includes atleast one of: radio measurements of TN and NTN cells depending upon theUE capability; an indication of whether a camped cell is part of an NTNor TN; a satellite identifier if a capped cell or neighboring cell ispart of NTN; or a cell visibility time or cell switch-off time of aparticular satellite or frequency or PCID.

In some aspects, the MDT report additionally include at least one of: anindication of whether camped cells and neighboring cell are visible withtimestamps; or a list of TACs. In some aspects, the data collectionreport includes an MDT report. In some aspects, the MDT reportindicates, for one or more NTN cells, at least one of: data volume, UEuplink throughput, UE downlink throughput, downlink delay, uplink delay,downlink packet loss, or uplink packet loss. In some aspects, the datavolume, UE uplink throughput, UE downlink throughput, downlink delay,uplink delay, downlink packet loss, or uplink packet loss are obtainedseparately based on the information whether the HARQ issue was detectedin uplink or downlink, or not.

In some aspects, the MDT report indicates, for RRM measurement of one ormore NTN cells, at least one of: cell and beam level measurements with asatellite identifier or flag to indicate cell and beam measurementscorrespond to NTN cell, which configured cell or frequency was notdetected in a configured master group or with configured MTC window, orhow long a physical cell ID or frequency was detected within theconfigured MTC window. In some aspects, the MDT report indicates atleast one of: an average, minimum, maximum, median, histogram, or excesspropagation delay or differential delay measured by the UE in ameasurement period. In some aspects, the MDT report indicates at leastone HARQ issue for at least one of uplink or downlink, if the HARQ issueis detected more than a threshold number of times. In some aspects, theMDT report indicates which HARQ processes were successful.

Notably, FIG. 17 is just use example, and many other examples andconfigurations of communication device are possible.

Example Clauses

Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1: A method of wireless communication by a UE, comprising:transmitting an indication of a capability of the UE to connect to anetwork via both TN cells and NTN cells; and transmitting one or moredata collection reports in accordance with the indicated capability.

Clause 2: The method of Clause 1, wherein: the data collection reportscomprise data collection reports for at least one of: networkself-configuration or network self-optimization.

Clause 3: The method of any one of Clauses 1-2, wherein: for datacollection reports that include measurements for an NTN cell, the UEincludes a satellite identifier corresponding to the NTN cell or anidentification that differentiate NTN cell from TN cell.

Clause 4: The method of any one of Clauses 1-3, further comprising:receiving signaling indicating whether the UE is to send one or more ofthe data collection reports via a TN cell, via an NTN cell, or via bothTN and NTN cells.

Clause 5: The method of Clause 4, wherein: the signaling indicates oneor more trigger events for at least one of handover between an NTN celland a TN cell or handover between a TN cell and an NTN cell.

Clause 6: The method of Clause 4, wherein: the signaling indicates thatdata collection reports including TN and NTN cell measurement are to besent via a TN cell, that data collection reports including only NTN cellmeasurements are to be sent via an NTN cell, or both.

Clause 7: The method of any one of Clauses 1-6, wherein: the UEseparately indicates availability of data collection reports for TNcells and NTN cells.

Clause 8: The method of Clause 7, further comprising: receiving arequest for a data collection report for NTN cells only; and sending adata collection report that includes entries for NTN cells only, inresponse to the request.

Clause 9: The method of any one of Clauses 1-8, wherein: the capabilityindicated by the UE indicates at least one of: whether the UE is able toreport data collection reports, for one or more NTN cells, via a TNcell; or whether the UE is able to report data collection reports, forone or more TN cells, via an NTN cell.

Clause 10: The method of any one of Clauses 1-9, wherein: transmittingone or more data collection reports comprises transmitting the one ormore data collection reports to a TCE via a user plane.

Clause 11: The method of Clause 10, further comprising: receiving atleast one of an IP address of the TCE or a URL for the TCE; andtransmitting the one or more data collection reports to the TCE addressor URL, via at least one of a TN cell, an NTN cell, or a LAN.

Clause 12: A method of wireless communication by a network entity,comprising: receiving, from a UE, an indication of a capability of theUE to connect to a network via both TN cells and NTN cells; andreceiving one or more data collection reports from the UE in accordancewith the indicated capability.

Clause 13: The method of Clause 12, wherein: the data collection reportscomprise data collection reports for at least one of: networkself-configuration or network self-optimization.

Clause 14: The method of any one of Clauses 12-13, wherein: the datacollection reports that include measurements for an NTN cell alsoinclude a satellite identifier corresponding to the NTN cell or anidentification that differentiate NTN cell from TN cell.

Clause 15: The method of any one of Clauses 12-14, further comprising:transmitting signaling, to the UE, indicating whether the UE is to sendone or more of the data collection reports via a TN cell, via an NTNcell, or via both NT and NTN cells.

Clause 16: The method of Clause 15, wherein: the signaling indicates oneor more trigger events for at least one of handover between an NTN celland a TN cell or handover between a TN cell and an NTN cell.

Clause 17: The method of Clause 15, wherein: the signaling indicatesthat data collection reports including TN and NTN cell measurement areto be sent via a TN cell, that data collection reports including onlyNTN cell measurements are to be sent via an NTN cell, or both.

Clause 18: The method of any one of Clauses 12-17, wherein: the UEseparately indicates availability of data collection reports for TNcells and NTN cells.

Clause 19: The method of Clause 18, further comprising: transmitting theUE a request for a data collection report for NTN cells only; andreceiving a data collection report that includes entries for NTN cellsonly, in response to the request.

Clause 20: The method of any one of Clauses 12-19, wherein: thecapability indicated by the UE indicates at least one of: whether UE theUE is able to report data collection reports, for one or more NTN cells,via a TN cell; or whether UE the UE is able to report data collectionreports, for one or more TN cells, via an NTN cell.

Clause 21: The method of any one of Clauses 12-20, further comprising:receiving one or more data collection reports comprises receiving theone or more data collection reports sent to a TCE via a user plane.

Clause 22: The method of Clause 21, further comprising: transmitting, tothe UE, at least one of an IP address of the TCE or a URL for the TCE;and receiving the one or more data collection reports to the TCE addressor URL, via at least one of a TN cell, an NTN cell, or a LAN.

Clause 23: A method of wireless communication by a UE, comprising:taking measurements for one or more TN cells and one or more NTN cells;and transmitting a report, upon detecting a failure, that includesmeasurements for at least one of the TN cells or the NTN cells.

Clause 24: The method of Clause 23, wherein: the failure comprises aRLF, a CEF, or a HoF associated with a handover from an NTN cell to a TNcell, from a TN cell to an NTN cell, or from an NTN cell to an NTN cell.

Clause 25: The method of Clause 24, wherein: the report includesmeasurements for NTN cells only if the HoF failure is associated with ahandover from an NTN cell to an NTN cell.

Clause 26: The method of Clause 24, wherein: the report includes anindication of whether a source primary cell, a failed primary cell, areestablish primary cell, or a reconnect primary cell is part of a TN orNTN by including a satellite identifier or a flag.

Clause 27: The method of Clause 24, wherein: the failure comprises anRLF and the report includes an NTN-specific RLF cause.

Clause 28: The method of Clause 27, wherein: the NTN-specific RLF causecomprises at least one of TAC update failure, a GNSS update failure, ora minimum elevation issue.

Clause 29: The method of Clause 24, wherein: the report includes one ormore configured CHO trigger conditions.

Clause 30: The method of Clause 29, wherein: the report includes atleast one of time-based CHO conditions or related parameters; orlocation based CHO conditions or related parameters.

Clause 31: The method of Clause 30, wherein: the time-based CHOconditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: a timeelapsed since an earliest time a CHO is allowed to be executed until ahandover failure; an indication of whether a time range was sufficientfor performing a CHO; an indication of whether the UE detected one ormore candidate cells in the time range; or a list of one or more NTNcells detected in the time range.

Clause 32: The method of Clause 30, wherein: the location-based CHOconditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: time spent bythe UE in the location range; an indication of whether the UE detectedone or more candidate cells in an area; a list of one or more NTN cellsdetected in the area; time spent by the UE in the area; or at least oneof a difference in distance or difference in RSRP observed by the UEthat did not meet a configured condition.

Clause 33: The method of Clause 30, wherein: the report indicates one ormore CHO trigger conditions and the time difference when different CHOtrigger condition that were met.

Clause 34: The method of Clause 24, wherein: the failure comprises a CEFand the report includes at least one of: timestamp and locationinformation, an identifier indicating whether a failed cell is broadcastas a potential target or future cell, an indication whether the failedcell is part of an NTN or TN, or a satellite identifier.

Clause 35: The method of Clause 34, wherein: the UE maintains separateCEF reports for TN cells and NTN cells.

Clause 36: The method of any one of Clauses 23-35, wherein: the reportcomprises at least one RACH report entry for a RACH procedure for an NTNcell.

Clause 37: The method of Clause 36, wherein: the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of PRACH resources related to atransmission of a first RACH message by the UE for the RACH procedure, atimestamp and location information to indicate when and where the UEperformed a RACH procedure, whether the UE used a GNSS assisted TAcommon TA value for the RACH procedure, or an indication of whether theUE used a random access preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS or forUEs not supporting GNSS.

Clause 38: The method of Clause 36, wherein: the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of a LCH identity; a measuredRTT value; a UE-specific service link RTT and broadcast RTT compensationvalue; time and frequency pre-compensation used by the UE for a PUSCHtransmission; a measured elevation angle; or a backoff counter lengthconfigured at the UE for an initial RACH.

Clause 39: The method of Clause 36, wherein: the RACH report entryinclude NTN specific RA-purpose: TA report or TA update, if the RACHprocedure was initiated for TA update.

Clause 40: The method of any one of Clauses 23-39, wherein: the reportcomprises at least one CGI report including a satellite identifiercorresponding to a CGI.

Clause 41: The method of any one of Clauses 23-40, wherein: the reportalso includes, for the NTN cell, at least one of: a timestamp, a UE tosatellite delay, a TAC, or elevation angle.

Clause 42: The method of Clause 41, wherein: the TAC comprises one ofmultiple TACs broadcast for a same PCI; and the UE reports at least oneof a current CGI based on a serving TAC or multiple CGIs based on thebroadcast TACs.

Clause 43: The method of any one of Clauses 23-42, wherein: the reportcomprises mobility information for the UE in the NTN cell; and themobility information comprises at least one of a time when the UEconnects to the NTN cell, a duration of time spent on the NTN cell, andinitial and final location information during cell transitions.

Clause 44: The method of any one of Clauses 23-43, wherein: the reportincludes UAC reporting information.

Clause 45: The method of Clause 44, wherein: the UAC reportinginformation comprises at least one of: time information of an accessattempt; location information where the access attempt was made; TACinformation and at least one of a PCI or a CGI of an access cell; or anaccess category, satellite identifier, or cell ID.

Clause 46: The method of Clause 44, wherein: the UAC reportinginformation comprises an indication of whether an access attempt failureresults in the reselection to the TN.

Clause 47: A method of wireless communication by a network entity,comprising: communicating with a UE capable of connecting to a networkvia both TN cells and a NTN cells; and receiving, from the UE, a reportthat indicates the UE detected a failure and includes measurements forat least one of the TN cells or the NTN cells.

Clause 48: The method of Clause 47, wherein: the failure comprises aRLF; a CEF; or a HoF associated with a handover from an NTN cell to a TNcell, from a TN cell to an NTN cell, or from an NTN cell to an NTN cell.

Clause 49: The method of Clause 48, wherein: the report includesmeasurements for NTN cells only if the HoF failure is associated with ahandover from an NTN cell to an NTN cell.

Clause 50: The method of Clause 48, wherein: the report includes anindication of whether a source primary cell, a failed primary cell, areestablish primary cell, or a reconnect primary cell is part of a TN orNTN by including a satellite identifier or a flag.

Clause 51: The method of Clause 48, wherein: the failure comprises anRLF and the report includes an NTN-specific RLF cause.

Clause 52: The method of Clause 51, wherein: the NTN-specific RLF causecomprises at least one of a TAC update failure, a GNSS update failure,or a minimum elevation issue.

Clause 53: The method of Clause 48, wherein: the report includes one ormore configured CHO trigger conditions.

Clause 54: The method of Clause 53, wherein: the report includes atleast one of: time-based CHO conditions or related parameters; orlocation based CHO conditions or related parameters.

Clause 55: The method of Clause 54, wherein: the time-based CHOconditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: a timeelapsed since an earliest time a CHO is allowed to be executed until ahandover failure; an indication of whether a time range was sufficientfor performing a CHO; an indication of whether the UE detected one ormore candidate cells in the time range; or a list of one or more NTNcells detected in the time range.

Clause 56: The method of Clause 54, wherein: the location-based CHOconditions or related parameters comprise at least one of: time spent bythe UE in the location range; an indication of whether the UE detectedone or more candidate cells in an area; a list of one or more NTN cellsdetected in the area; time spent by the UE in the area; or at least oneof a difference in distance or difference in RSRP observed by the UEthat did not meet a configured condition.

Clause 57: The method of Clause 54, wherein: the report indicates one ormore CHO trigger conditions and the time difference when different CHOtrigger condition that were met.

Clause 58: The method of Clause 48, wherein: the failure comprises a CEFand the report includes at least one of: timestamp and locationinformation, an identifier indicating whether a failed cell is broadcastas a potential target or future cell, an indication whether the failedcell is part of an NTN or TN, or a satellite identifier.

Clause 59: The method of Clause 58, wherein: the network entity receivesseparate CEF reports for TN cells and NTN cells.

Clause 60: The method of any one of Clauses 47-59, wherein: the reportcomprises at least one RACH report entry for a RACH procedure for an NTNcell.

Clause 61: The method of Clause 60, wherein: the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of PRACH resources related to atransmission of a first RACH message by the UE for the RACH procedure, atimestamp and location information to indicate when and where the UEperformed a RACH procedure, whether the UE used a GNSS assisted TAcommon TA value for the RACH procedure, or an indication of whether theUE used a random access preamble reserved for UEs supporting GNSS or forUEs not supporting GNSS.

Clause 62: The method of Clause 60, wherein: the RACH report entryincludes at least one of: an indication of a LCH identity; a measuredRTT value; a UE-specific service link RTT and broadcast RTT compensationvalue; time and frequency pre-compensation used by the UE for a PUSCHtransmission; a measured elevation angle; or a backoff counter lengthconfigured at the UE for an initial RACH.

Clause 63: The method of Clause 60, wherein: the RACH report entryinclude NTN specific RA-purpose: TA report or TA update, if the RACHprocedure was initiated for TA update.

Clause 64: The method of any one of Clauses 47-63, wherein: the reportcomprises at least one CGI report including a satellite identifiercorresponding to a CGI.

Clause 65: The method of any one of Clauses 47-64, wherein: the reportalso includes, for the NTN cell, at least one of: a timestamp, a UE tosatellite delay, a TAC, or elevation angle.

Clause 66: The method of Clause 65, wherein: the TAC comprises one ofmultiple TACs broadcast for a same PCI; and the UE reports at least oneof a current CGI based on a serving TAC or multiple CGIs based on thebroadcast TACs.

Clause 67: The method of any one of Clauses 47-66, wherein: the reportcomprises mobility information for the UE in the NTN cell; and themobility information comprises at least one of a time when the UEconnects to the NTN cell, a duration of time spent on the NTN cell, andinitial and final location information during cell transitions.

Clause 68: The method of any one of Clauses 47-67, wherein: the reportincludes UAC reporting information.

Clause 69: The method of Clause 68, wherein: the UAC reportinginformation comprises at least one of: time information of an accessattempt; location information where the access attempt was made; TACinformation and at least one of a PCI or a CGI of an access cell; or anaccess category, satellite identifier, or cell ID.

Clause 70: The method of Clause 68, wherein: the UAC reportinginformation comprises an indication of whether an access attempt failureresults in the reselection to the TN.

Clause 71: A method of wireless communication by a wireless node,comprising: generating at least one data collection report for networkcell self-optimization and for QoS verification while the UE is capableof connecting to a network via both TN cells and NTN cells; andtransmitting the data collection report.

Clause 72: The method of Clause 71, wherein: the data collection reportcomprises a MDT report.

Clause 73: The method of Clause 72, wherein: the data collection reportcomprises a MDT report Containing measurements in IDLE and INACTIVEstate that includes at least one of: radio measurements of TN and NTNcells depending upon the UE capability; an indication of whether acamped cell is part of an NTN or TN; a satellite identifier if a cappedcell or neighboring cell is part of NTN; or a cell visibility time orcell switch-off time of a particular satellite or frequency or PCID.

Clause 74: The method of Clause 73, wherein: the MDT report additionallyinclude at least one of: an indication of whether camped cells andneighboring cell are visible with timestamps; or a list of TACs.

Clause 75: The method of Clause 72, wherein: the data collection reportcomprises an MDT report.

Clause 76: The method of Clause 75, wherein: the MDT report indicates,for one or more NTN cells, at least one of: data volume, UE uplinkthroughput, UE downlink throughput, downlink delay, uplink delay,downlink packet loss, or uplink packet loss.

Clause 77: The method of Clause 76, wherein: the data volume, UE uplinkthroughput, UE downlink throughput, downlink delay, uplink delay,downlink packet loss, or uplink packet loss are obtained separatelybased on the information whether the HARQ issue was detected in uplinkor downlink, or not.

Clause 78: The method of Clause 75, wherein: the MDT report indicates,for RRM measurement of one or more NTN cells, at least one of: cell andbeam level measurements with a satellite identifier or flag to indicatecell and beam measurements correspond to NTN cell, which configured cellor frequency was not detected in a configured master group or withconfigured MTC window, or how long a physical cell ID or frequency wasdetected within the configured MTC window.

Clause 79: The method of Clause 75, wherein: the MDT report indicates atleast one of: an average, minimum, maximum, median, histogram, or excesspropagation delay or differential delay measured by the UE in ameasurement period.

Clause 80: The method of Clause 75, wherein: the MDT report indicates atleast one HARQ issue for at least one of uplink or downlink, if the HARQissue is detected more than a threshold number of times.

Clause 81: The method of Clause 80, wherein: the MDT report indicateswhich HARQ processes were successful.

Clause 82: A processing system, comprising: a memory comprisingcomputer-executable instructions; one or more processors configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions and cause the processingsystem to perform a method in accordance with any one of Clauses 1-81.

Clause 83: A processing system, comprising means for performing a methodin accordance with any one of Clauses 1-81.

Clause 84: A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors of a processing system, cause the processing system toperform a method in accordance with any one of Clauses 1-81.

Clause 85: A computer program product embodied on a computer-readablestorage medium comprising code for performing a method in accordancewith any one of Clauses 1-81.

Additional Wireless Communication Network Considerations

The techniques and methods described herein may be used for variouswireless communications networks (or wireless wide area network (WWAN))and radio access technologies (RATs). While aspects may be describedherein using terminology commonly associated with 3G, 4G, and/or 5G(e.g., 5G new radio (NR)) wireless technologies, aspects of the presentdisclosure may likewise be applicable to other communication systems andstandards not explicitly mentioned herein.

5G wireless communication networks may support various advanced wirelesscommunication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB),millimeter wave (mmWave), machine type communications (MTC), and/ormission critical targeting ultra-reliable, low-latency communications(URLLC). These services, and others, may include latency and reliabilityrequirements.

Returning to FIG. 1 , various aspects of the present disclosure may beperformed within the example wireless communication network 100.

In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a NodeB and/ora narrowband subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on thecontext in which the term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell” andBS, next generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB), access point (AP),distributed unit (DU), carrier, or transmission reception point may beused interchangeably. A BS may provide communication coverage for amacro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cells.

A macro cell may generally cover a relatively large geographic area(e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted accessby UEs with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relativelysmall geographic area (e.g., a sports stadium) and may allowunrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell maycover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allowrestricted access by UEs having an association with the femto cell(e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) and UEs for users in thehome). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS fora pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell maybe referred to as a femto BS, home BS, or a home NodeB.

Base stations 102 configured for 4G LTE (collectively referred to asEvolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) TerrestrialRadio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) may interface with the EPC 160 throughfirst backhaul links 132 (e.g., an S1 interface). Base stations 102configured for 5G (e.g., 5G NR or Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)) mayinterface with 5GC 190 through second backhaul links 184. Base stations102 may communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC 160 or5GC 190) with each other over third backhaul links 134 (e.g., X2interface). Third backhaul links 134 may generally be wired or wireless.

Small cell 102′ may operate in a licensed and/or an unlicensed frequencyspectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the smallcell 102′ may employ NR and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequencyspectrum as used by the Wi-Fi AP 150. Small cell 102′, employing NR inan unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage to and/or increasecapacity of the access network.

Some base stations, such as gNB 180 may operate in a traditional sub-6GHz spectrum, in millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies, and/or nearmmWave frequencies in communication with the UE 104. When the gNB 180operates in mmWave or near mmWave frequencies, the gNB 180 may bereferred to as an mmWave base station.

The communication links 120 between base stations 102 and, for example,UEs 104, may be through one or more carriers. For example, base stations102 and UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100,400, and other MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrieraggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used fortransmission in each direction. The carriers may or may not be adjacentto each other. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect toDL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL than forUL). The component carriers may include a primary component carrier andone or more secondary component carriers. A primary component carriermay be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and a secondary componentcarrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

Wireless communications system 100 further includes a Wi-Fi access point(AP) 150 in communication with Wi-Fi stations (STAs) 152 viacommunication links 154 in, for example, a 2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHzunlicensed frequency spectrum. When communicating in an unlicensedfrequency spectrum, the STAs 152/AP 150 may perform a clear channelassessment (CCA) prior to communicating in order to determine whetherthe channel is available.

Certain UEs 104 may communicate with each other using device-to-device(D2D) communication link 158. The D2D communication link 158 may use theDL/UL WWAN spectrum. The D2D communication link 158 may use one or moresidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel(PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physicalsidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink control channel(PSCCH). D2D communication may be through a variety of wireless D2Dcommunications systems, such as for example, FlashLinQ, WiMedia,Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi based on the IEEE 802.11 standard, 4G (e.g.,LTE), or 5G (e.g., NR), to name a few options.

EPC 160 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 162, other MMES164, a Serving Gateway 166, a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service(MBMS) Gateway 168, a Broadcast Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) 170,and a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway 172. MME 162 may be incommunication with a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 174. MME 162 is thecontrol node that processes the signaling between the UEs 104 and theEPC 160. Generally, MME 162 provides bearer and connection management.

Generally, user Internet protocol (IP) packets are transferred throughServing Gateway 166, which itself is connected to PDN Gateway 172. PDNGateway 172 provides UE IP address allocation as well as otherfunctions. PDN Gateway 172 and the BM-SC 170 are connected to the IPServices 176, which may include, for example, the Internet, an intranet,an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS Streaming Service, and/or otherIP services.

BM-SC 170 may provide functions for MBMS user service provisioning anddelivery. BM-SC 170 may serve as an entry point for content providerMBMS transmission, may be used to authorize and initiate MBMS BearerServices within a public land mobile network (PLMN), and may be used toschedule MBMS transmissions. MBMS Gateway 168 may be used to distributeMBMS traffic to the base stations 102 belonging to a Multicast BroadcastSingle Frequency Network (MBSFN) area broadcasting a particular service,and may be responsible for session management (start/stop) and forcollecting eMBMS related charging information.

5GC 190 may include an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)192, other AMFs 193, a Session Management Function (SMF) 194, and a UserPlane Function (UPF) 195. AMF 192 may be in communication with a UnifiedData Management (UDM) 196.

AMF 192 is generally the control node that processes the signalingbetween UEs 104 and 5GC 190. Generally, AMF 192 provides QoS flow andsession management.

All user Internet protocol (IP) packets are transferred through UPF 195,which is connected to the IP Services 197, and which provides UE IPaddress allocation as well as other functions for 5GC 190. IP Services197 may include, for example, the Internet, an intranet, an IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS Streaming Service, and/or other IPservices.

Returning to FIG. 2 , various example components of BS 102 and UE 104(e.g., the wireless communication network 100 of FIG. 1 ) are depicted,which may be used to implement aspects of the present disclosure.

At BS 102, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source212 and control information from a controller/processor 240. The controlinformation may be for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), physicalcontrol format indicator channel (PCFICH), physical hybrid ARQ indicatorchannel (PHICH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), group commonPDCCH (GC PDCCH), and others. The data may be for the physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH), in some examples.

A medium access control (MAC)-control element (MAC-CE) is a MAC layercommunication structure that may be used for control command exchangebetween wireless nodes. The MAC-CE may be carried in a shared channelsuch as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical uplinkshared channel (PUSCH), or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

Processor 220 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data andcontrol information to obtain data symbols and control symbols,respectively. Transmit processor 220 may also generate referencesymbols, such as for the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondarysynchronization signal (SSS), PBCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS),and channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 mayperform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, thecontrol symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and mayprovide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) in transceivers232 a-232 t. Each modulator in transceivers 232 a-232 t may process arespective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM) to obtain an outputsample stream. Each modulator may further process (e.g., convert toanalog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream toobtain a downlink signal. Downlink signals from the modulators intransceivers 232 a-232 t may be transmitted via the antennas 234 a-234t, respectively.

At UE 104, antennas 252 a-252 r may receive the downlink signals fromthe BS 102 and may provide received signals to the demodulators (DEMODs)in transceivers 254 a-254 r, respectively. Each demodulator intransceivers 254 a-254 r may condition (e.g., filter, amplify,downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain inputsamples. Each demodulator may further process the input samples (e.g.,for OFDM) to obtain received symbols.

MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all the demodulatorsin transceivers 254 a-254 r, perform MIMO detection on the receivedsymbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. Receive processor258 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) thedetected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 104 to a data sink260, and provide decoded control information to a controller/processor280.

On the uplink, at UE 104, transmit processor 264 may receive and processdata (e.g., for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) from a datasource 262 and control information (e.g., for the physical uplinkcontrol channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 280. Transmitprocessor 264 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal(e.g., for the sounding reference signal (SRS)). The symbols from thetransmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 ifapplicable, further processed by the modulators in transceivers 254a-254 r (e.g., for SC-FDM), and transmitted to BS 102.

At BS 102, the uplink signals from UE 104 may be received by antennas234 a-t, processed by the demodulators in transceivers 232 a-232 t,detected by a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed bya receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control informationsent by UE 104. Receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to adata sink 239 and the decoded control information to thecontroller/processor 240.

Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 102 and UE104, respectively.

Scheduler 244 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlinkand/or uplink.

5G may utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with acyclic prefix (CP) on the uplink and downlink. 5G may also supporthalf-duplex operation using time division duplexing (TDD). OFDM andsingle-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) partition thesystem bandwidth into multiple orthogonal subcarriers, which are alsocommonly referred to as tones and bins. Each subcarrier may be modulatedwith data. Modulation symbols may be sent in the frequency domain withOFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacentsubcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers may bedependent on the system bandwidth. The minimum resource allocation,called a resource block (RB), may be 12 consecutive subcarriers in someexamples. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands.For example, a subband may cover multiple RBs. NR may support a basesubcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 KHz and other SCS may be defined withrespect to the base SCS (e.g., 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, 240 kHz, andothers).

As above, FIGS. 3A-3D depict various example aspects of data structuresfor a wireless communication network, such as wireless communicationnetwork 100 of FIG. 1 .

In various aspects, the 5G frame structure may be frequency divisionduplex (FDD), in which for a particular set of subcarriers (carriersystem bandwidth), subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicatedfor either DL or UL. 5G frame structures may also be time divisionduplex (TDD), in which for a particular set of subcarriers (carriersystem bandwidth), subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicatedfor both DL and UL. In the examples provided by FIGS. 3A and 3C, the 5Gframe structure is assumed to be TDD, with subframe 4 being configuredwith slot format 28 (with mostly DL), where D is DL, U is UL, and X isflexible for use between DL/UL, and subframe 3 being configured withslot format 34 (with mostly UL). While subframes 3, 4 are shown withslot formats 34, 28, respectively, any particular subframe may beconfigured with any of the various available slot formats 0-61. Slotformats 0, 1 are all DL, UL, respectively. Other slot formats 2-61include a mix of DL, UL, and flexible symbols. UEs are configured withthe slot format (dynamically through DL control information (DCI), orsemi-statically/statically through radio resource control (RRC)signaling) through a received slot format indicator (SFI). Note that thedescription below applies also to a 5G frame structure that is TDD.

Other wireless communication technologies may have a different framestructure and/or different channels. A frame (10 ms) may be divided into10 equally sized subframes (1 ms). Each subframe may include one or moretime slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7,4, or 2 symbols. In some examples, each slot may include 7 or 14symbols, depending on the slot configuration.

For example, for slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols,and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols. Thesymbols on DL may be cyclic prefix (CP) OFDM (CP-OFDM) symbols. Thesymbols on UL may be CP-OFDM symbols (for high throughput scenarios) ordiscrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols (alsoreferred to as single carrier frequency-division multiple access(SC-FDMA) symbols) (for power limited scenarios; limited to a singlestream transmission).

The number of slots within a subframe is based on the slot configurationand the numerology. For slot configuration 0, different numerologies 0to 5 allow for 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 slots, respectively, per subframe.For slot configuration 1, different numerologies 0 to 2 allow for 2, 4,and 8 slots, respectively, per subframe. Accordingly, for slotconfiguration 0 and numerology μ, there are 14 symbols/slot and 2μslots/subframe. The subcarrier spacing and symbol length/duration are afunction of the numerology. The subcarrier spacing may be equal to2^(μ)×15 kHz, where μ is the numerology 0 to 5. As such, the numerologyμ=0 has a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz and the numerology μ=5 has asubcarrier spacing of 480 kHz. The symbol length/duration is inverselyrelated to the subcarrier spacing. FIGS. 3A-3D provide an example ofslot configuration 0 with 14 symbols per slot and numerology μ=2 with 4slots per subframe. The slot duration is 0.25 ms, the subcarrier spacingis 60 kHz, and the symbol duration is approximately 16.67 μs.

A resource grid may be used to represent the frame structure. Each timeslot includes a resource block (RB) (also referred to as physical RBs(PRBs)) that extends 12 consecutive subcarriers. The resource grid isdivided into multiple resource elements (REs). The number of bitscarried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

As illustrated in FIG. 3A, some of the REs carry reference (pilot)signals (RS) for a UE (e.g., UE 104 of FIGS. 1 and 2 ). The RS mayinclude demodulation RS (DM-RS) (indicated as Rx for one particularconfiguration, where 100× is the port number, but other DM-RSconfigurations are possible) and channel state information referencesignals (CSI-RS) for channel estimation at the UE. The RS may alsoinclude beam measurement RS (BRS), beam refinement RS (BRRS), and phasetracking RS (PT-RS).

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of various DL channels within a subframeof a frame. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries DCIwithin one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE includingnine RE groups (REGs), each REG including four consecutive REs in anOFDM symbol.

A primary synchronization signal (PSS) may be within symbol 2 ofparticular subframes of a frame. The PSS is used by a UE (e.g., 104 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 ) to determine subframe/symbol timing and a physical layeridentity.

A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) may be within symbol 4 ofparticular subframes of a frame. The SSS is used by a UE to determine aphysical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing.

Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cellidentity group number, the UE can determine a physical cell identifier(PCI). Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the locations of theaforementioned DM-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH), whichcarries a master information block (MIB), may be logically grouped withthe PSS and SSS to form a synchronization signal (SS)/PBCH block. TheMIB provides a number of RBs in the system bandwidth and a system framenumber (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries userdata, broadcast system information not transmitted through the PBCH suchas system information blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

As illustrated in FIG. 3C, some of the REs carry DM-RS (indicated as Rfor one particular configuration, but other DM-RS configurations arepossible) for channel estimation at the base station. The UE maytransmit DM-RS for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and DM-RSfor the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The PUSCH DM-RS may betransmitted in the first one or two symbols of the PUSCH. The PUCCHDM-RS may be transmitted in different configurations depending onwhether short or long PUCCHs are transmitted and depending on theparticular PUCCH format used. The UE may transmit sounding referencesignals (SRS). The SRS may be transmitted in the last symbol of asubframe. The SRS may have a comb structure, and a UE may transmit SRSon one of the combs. The SRS may be used by a base station for channelquality estimation to enable frequency-dependent scheduling on the UL.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example of various UL channels within a subframeof a frame. The PUCCH may be located as indicated in one configuration.The PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI), such as schedulingrequests, a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrixindicator (PMI), a rank indicator (RI), and HARQ ACK/NACK feedback. ThePUSCH carries data, and may additionally be used to carry a bufferstatus report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), and/or UCI.

Additional Considerations

The preceding description provides examples of data collection reportingfor NTN networks. The preceding description is provided to enable anyperson skilled in the art to practice the various aspects describedherein. The examples discussed herein are not limiting of the scope,applicability, or aspects set forth in the claims. Various modificationsto these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art,and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to otheraspects. For example, changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements discussed without departing from the scope ofthe disclosure. Various examples may omit, substitute, or add variousprocedures or components as appropriate. For instance, the methodsdescribed may be performed in an order different from that described,and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Also, featuresdescribed with respect to some examples may be combined in some otherexamples. For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method maybe practiced using any number of the aspects set forth herein. Inaddition, the scope of the disclosure is intended to cover such anapparatus or method that is practiced using other structure,functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to, or otherthan, the various aspects of the disclosure set forth herein. It shouldbe understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosed herein may beembodied by one or more elements of a claim.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication technologies, such as 5G (e.g., 5G NR), 3GPP Long TermEvolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), code division multiple access(CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency divisionmultiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA), single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA),time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA), andother networks. The terms “network” and “system” are often usedinterchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such asUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, and others. UTRAincludes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implementa radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as NR(e.g. 5G RA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, andothers. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile TelecommunicationSystem (UMTS). LTE and LTE-A are releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA,E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from anorganization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). cdma2000and UMB are described in documents from an organization named “3rdGeneration Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). NR is an emerging wirelesscommunications technology under development.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits describedin connection with the present disclosure may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD),discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, a system on a chip(SoC), or any other such configuration.

If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration maycomprise a processing system in a wireless node. The processing systemmay be implemented with a bus architecture. The bus may include anynumber of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specificapplication of the processing system and the overall design constraints.The bus may link together various circuits including a processor,machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface may beused to connect a network adapter, among other things, to the processingsystem via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement thesignal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the case of a userequipment (see FIG. 1 ), a user interface (e.g., keypad, display, mouse,joystick, touchscreen, biometric sensor, proximity sensor, lightemitting element, and others) may also be connected to the bus. The busmay also link various other circuits such as timing sources,peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, and thelike, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not bedescribed any further. The processor may be implemented with one or moregeneral-purpose and/or special-purpose processors. Examples includemicroprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitrythat can execute software. Those skilled in the art will recognize howbest to implement the described functionality for the processing systemdepending on the particular application and the overall designconstraints imposed on the overall system.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmittedover as one or more instructions or code on a computer readable medium.Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or anycombination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.Computer-readable media include both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. The processor may beresponsible for managing the bus and general processing, including theexecution of software modules stored on the machine-readable storagemedia. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processorsuch that the processor can read information from, and write informationto, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may beintegral to the processor. By way of example, the machine-readable mediamay include a transmission line, a carrier wave modulated by data,and/or a computer readable storage medium with instructions storedthereon separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed bythe processor through the bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition,the machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integratedinto the processor, such as the case may be with cache and/or generalregister files. Examples of machine-readable storage media may include,by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (ReadOnly Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, opticaldisks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or anycombination thereof. The machine-readable media may be embodied in acomputer-program product.

A software module may comprise a single instruction, or manyinstructions, and may be distributed over several different codesegments, among different programs, and across multiple storage media.The computer-readable media may comprise a number of software modules.The software modules include instructions that, when executed by anapparatus such as a processor, cause the processing system to performvarious functions. The software modules may include a transmissionmodule and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in asingle storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices.By way of example, a software module may be loaded into RAM from a harddrive when a triggering event occurs. During execution of the softwaremodule, the processor may load some of the instructions into cache toincrease access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into ageneral register file for execution by the processor. When referring tothe functionality of a software module below, it will be understood thatsuch functionality is implemented by the processor when executinginstructions from that software module.

As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of itemsrefers to any combination of those items, including single members. Asan example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c,a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples ofthe same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b,b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety ofactions. For example, “determining” may include calculating, computing,processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in atable, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.Also, “determining” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information),accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also,“determining” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishingand the like.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions forachieving the methods. The method steps and/or actions may beinterchanged with one another without departing from the scope of theclaims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions isspecified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may bemodified without departing from the scope of the claims. Further, thevarious operations of methods described above may be performed by anysuitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. Themeans may include various hardware and/or software component(s) and/ormodule(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Generally, where thereare operations illustrated in figures, those operations may havecorresponding counterpart means-plus-function components with similarnumbering.

The following claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shownherein, but are to be accorded the full scope consistent with thelanguage of the claims. Within a claim, reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. No claim element is tobe construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless theelement is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in thecase of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “stepfor.” All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of thevarious aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known orlater come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to beencompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein isintended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether suchdisclosure is explicitly recited in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for wireless communications by a userequipment (UE), comprising: transmitting an indication of a capabilityof the UE to connect to a network via both terrestrial network (TN)cells and non-terrestrial network (NTN) cells; and transmitting one ormore data collection reports in accordance with the capability.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the data collection reports comprise datacollection reports for at least one of: network self-configuration ornetwork self-optimization.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein, for datacollection reports that include measurements for an NTN cell, the UEincludes a satellite identifier corresponding to the NTN cell or anidentification that differentiate NTN cell from TN cell.
 4. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: receiving signaling indicating whetherthe UE is to send one or more of the data collection reports via a TNcell, via an NTN cell, or via both NT and NTN cells.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, wherein the signaling indicates one or more trigger events forat least one of handover between an NTN cell and a TN cell or handoverbetween a TN cell and an NTN cell.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein thesignaling indicates at least one of: that data collection reportsincluding TN and NTN cell measurement are to be sent via a TN cell; orthat data collection reports including only NTN cell measurements are tobe sent via an NTN cell.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the UEseparately indicates availability of data collection reports for TNcells and NTN cells.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:receiving a request for a data collection report for NTN cells only; andsending a data collection report that includes entries for NTN cellsonly, in response to the request.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thecapability includes at least one of: whether UE the UE is able to reportdata collection reports, for one or more NTN cells, via a TN cell; orwhether UE the UE is able to report data collection reports, for one ormore TN cells, via an NTN cell.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereintransmitting one or more data collection reports comprises: transmittingthe one or more data collection reports to a trace collection entity(TCE) via a user plane.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:receiving at least one of a an internet protocol (IP) address of the TCEor a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the TCE; and transmitting theone or more data collection reports to the TCE address or URL, via atleast one of a TN cell, an NTN cell, or a local area network (LAN). 12.A method for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising:receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an indication of a capability ofthe UE to connect to a network via both terrestrial network (TN) cellsand non-terrestrial network (NTN) cells; and receiving one or more datacollection reports from the UE in accordance with the capability. 13.The method of claim 12, wherein the data collection reports comprisedata collection reports for at least one of: network self-configurationor network self-optimization.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein datacollection reports that include measurements for an NTN cell alsoinclude a satellite identifier corresponding to the NTN cell or anidentification that differentiate NTN cell from TN cell.
 15. The methodof claim 12, further comprising: transmitting signaling, to the UE,indicating whether the UE is to send one or more of the data collectionreports via a TN cell, via an NTN cell, or via both NT and NTN cells.16. The method of claim 15, wherein the signaling indicates one or moretrigger events for at least one of handover between an NTN cell and a TNcell or handover between a TN cell and an NTN cell.
 17. The method ofclaim 15, wherein the signaling indicates at least one of: that datacollection reports including TN and NTN cell measurement are to be sentvia a TN cell; or that data collection reports including only NTN cellmeasurements are to be sent via an NTN cell.
 18. The method of claim 12,wherein the UE separately indicates availability of data collectionreports for TN cells and NTN cells.
 19. The method of claim 18, furthercomprising: transmitting the UE a request for a data collection reportfor NTN cells only; and receiving a data collection report that includesentries for NTN cells only, in response to the request.
 20. The methodof claim 12, wherein the capability includes at least one of: whether UEthe UE is able to report data collection reports, for one or more NTNcells, via a TN cell; or whether UE the UE is able to report datacollection reports, for one or more TN cells, via an NTN cell.
 21. Themethod of claim 12, wherein receiving one or more data collectionreports comprises: receiving the one or more data collection reportssent to a trace collection entity (TCE) via a user plane.
 22. The methodof claim 21, further comprising: transmitting, to the UE, at least oneof a an internet protocol (IP) address of the TCE or a Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) for the TCE; and receiving the one or more data collectionreports to the TCE address or URL, via at least one of a TN cell, an NTNcell, or a local area network (LAN).
 23. An apparatus for wirelesscommunications by a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; and aprocessor coupled to the memory, the processor and the memory configuredto: transmit an indication of a capability of the UE to connect to anetwork via both terrestrial network (TN) cells and non-terrestrialnetwork (NTN) cells; and transmit one or more data collection reports inaccordance with the capability.
 24. A non-transitory computer-readablemedium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by one ormore processors of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: transmit anindication of a capability of the UE to connect to a network via bothterrestrial network (TN) cells and non-terrestrial network (NTN) cells;and transmit one or more data collection reports in accordance with thecapability.